compared with that of Heaven are trash and rubbish and the tugging at an Oar in the Gallies compared with Hell a Glory When the leap is great and dangerous he who is to leap it uses to fetch his Careere backwards that he may leap further and with greater force We therefore knowing the danger of the leap from life to death that we may perform it better ought to fetch our Careere far back even from the beginning of our short life and from our first use of reason from which we shall know that the life we live is mortal that at the end of it we have a great debt to pay and that we are to discharge both use and principal when we least think of it St. John Eleemosynarius relates that anciently when they crowned an Emperour the principal Architects presented him with some peeces of several sorts of Marble wishing him to make choice of such as best pleased him for his Sepulcher giving him thereby to understand that his Reign was to last so short a time that it was convenient for him immediately to begin his Tomb that it might be finished before his life were ended and that withal he could not govern well his Vassals unless he first governed himself by the memory of death The others present were also admonished by this mystery that so soon as reason began to command and have Dominion in us that it was then time to provide for death and that in the preparation for our end consisted the good government and perfection of life A perfect life saith St. Gregory is the meditation of death Greg. moral 12. and he enjoyes a perfect life who imployes it in the study of death he lives well who learns how to dye well and he that knows not that knows nothing all Sciences besides profit him but little What did all that he had studied and all which he knew profit the great Aristotle nothing which he himself confest being near his death For when his Disciples besought him that having in his life time bestowed upon them so many fair Lessons and wise Sentences he would leave them one at his death This was his answer I entred this life in poverty I lived in misery and dye in ignorance of that which most imports me to know He said well for he had never studied how to dye Many Disciples hath Aristotle in those Sciences which he knew and many which follow his opinions but many more who imitate him in the ignorance he had of death Let us husband Time in which we may gain Eternity which being once lost we shall lose both the Time of this life and the Eternity of the other How many millions are now in Hell who whilest they were in this world dispised time and would now be content to suffer thousands of years all the torments of the damned for the redemption but of one instant in which they might by repentance recover the eternal life of glory which is now lost without remedy and yet thou casts away not onely instants but hours dayes and years Consider what a damned person would give for some part of that time which thou losest and take heed that thou hereafter when there shall be no repair of that time which thou now so lavishly mispendest be not thy self in the same grief and bitterness O fools as many as seek vain etertainments to pass away the time as though time would stand still if they found not divertisements to make it pass The time of this life flyes and over-runs thee and thou layest not up for the other Consider how thou mayest by Time gain Eternity look not then upon the loss of it as upon the loss of Time but of Etenity Time as saith Nazienzen is the Market or Fair of Eternity Endeavour then whilest it lasts to get a good bargain for this life once past there is no more occasion of traffick the time appointed for storing up is but short and the gain and profit is eternal Hear what a Heathen teaches thee who knew not this great good that by Time might be purchased Eternity and yet he sayes in this manner Nature did not bestow Time upon us with such liberality Seneca Epist 118. as that the least particle of it might be cast away Consider how much Time is lost even to the most diligent some part the care of our health takes from us some that of our friends some our necessary occasions some our publick affairs imploy sleep divides life with us Of this then so short and rapid time which remains what doth it profit us to spend the greater part in vain Lib. de brevitate vitae The same Author advises us also that we strive to overcome the swiftness of time with our diligence in well using and imploying it If this be Seneca's counsel who had not the help of faith and was ignorant that in an instant of time might be gained an eternity of Glory what ought we to do who have the light of heaven the knowledge of eternal happiness and the threats of eternal torments Let us live ever dying and let us think every instant to be our last so shall we not lose this time which is so precious and by which we may gain what is eternal Let us call to mind what is said by St. John Climacus Climac gra 6. The present day is not well past unless we esteem it to be the last of our life He is a good man who every hour expects death but he is a Saint that every hour desires it At least let us behave our selves as mortals and let us believe we are so shewing by our works that we know we are to dye Let us ask that of God which was prayed for by David Lord let me know the fewness of my dayes It is apparent that we are to dye it is apparent that we know not when it is apparent that we are dye but once but it is much more available as St. Ambrose notes when God saith it and we discourse it in our selves Let us therefore practically perswade our selves of this truth and let not that time slip from betwixt our hands which once past will never return Let us blush at the counsel of a Heathen Marcus Aurelius the Emperour who advises us to proceed alwayes constantly in vertuous actions Anton. lib. 2. in princip Reflect sayes he upon the end of that time which is assigned thee the which if thou shalt not spend in procuring the peace of thy mind whilest thou livest it will pass away and never return unto thee being dead every hour apply thy mind to mark seriously what thou takest in hand and doe it accurately with fortitude as becomes a Roman with an unfeigned gravity humanity liberality justice and in the mean time withdraw thy mind from all other thoughts which thou shalt easily doe if thou shalt so perform each action without the mixture of vain glory as if it were the last
as well as Subject owe to the sin of our first Parents May you then being translated hence to the embraces of your Creator experimentally finde the true difference between things temporal and eternal in the blisful vision and fruition of our great All our all-mighty all-lovely all-glorious God who is all wonders at one sight all joyes and comforts in their sourse all blessings in their center the end of all labours the reward of all services the desire of all hearts and the accomplishment of all hopes and wishes May he then be to your Majesty all this which is here briefly expressed and infinitely more which is beyond expression And may he secure all these blessings to you for ever and crown them with his glorious Attribute of Eternity This is the no less hearty then dutiful prayer of MADAM Your Majesties Most humbly devoted In Christ Jesus J. W. A Summary of the Chapters in this Book LIB I. Cap. 1. OVr Ignorance of what are the true goods and not onely of things Eternal but Temporal pa. 1. Cap. 2. How efficacious is the Consideration of Eternity for the change of our lives p. 6. Cap. 3. The memory of Eternity is of it self more efficacious than that of Death p. 12. Cap. 4. The estate of men in this life and the miserable forgetfulness which they have of Eternity p. 18. Cap. 5. What is Eternity according to St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Dionysius p. 25. Cap. 6. What Eternity is according to Boetius and Plotinus p. 29. Cap. 7. Wherein is declared what Eternity is according to St. Bernard p. 33. Cap. 8. What it is in Eternity to have no end p. 41. Cap. 9. How Eternity is without change p. 52. Cap. 10. How Eternity is without comparison p. 60. Cap. 11. What is Time according to Aristotle and other Philosophers and the little consistence of life p. 68. Cap. 12. How short life is for which respect all things temporal are to be despised p. 74. Cap. 13. What is Time according to St. Augustine p. 82. Cap. 14. Time it the occasion of Eternity and how a Christian ought to benefit himself by it p. 89. Cap. 15. What is Time according to Plato and Plotinus and how deceitful is all that which is temporal p. 98. LIB II. Cap. 1. Of the End of Temporal Life p. 104. Cap. 2. Remarkable Conditions of the end of Temporal Life p. 121. Cap. 3. Of that moment which is the Medium betwixt Time and Eternity which being the end of Life is therefore most terrible p. 140. Cap. 4. Wherefore the End of Life is most terrible p. 147. Cap. 5. How God even in this Life passes a most rigorous Judgement p. 174. Cap. 6. Of the End of all Time p. 181. Cap. 7. How the Elements and the Heavens are to change at the end of Time p. 185. Cap. 8. How the World ought to conclude with so dreadful an End in which a general Judgement is to pass upon all that is in it p. 205. Cap. 9. Of the last day of Time p. 213. LIB III. Cap. 1. The mutability of things temporal makes them worthy of contempt p. 228. Cap. 2. How great and desperate soever our Temporal evils are yet hope may make them tolerable p. 238. Cap. 3. We ought to consider what we may come to be p. 243. Cap. 4. The Change of humane things shews clearly their vanity and how worthy they are to be contemned p. 253. Cap. 5. The baseness and disorder of Temporal things and how great a Monster men have made the World p. 261. Cap. 6. The Littleness of things Temporal p. 269. Cap. 7. How miserable a thing is this Temporal Life p. 285. Cap. 8. How little is Man whilest he is Temporal p. 309. Cap. 9. How deceitful are all things Temporal p. 319. Cap. 10. The dangers and prejudices of things Temporal p. 326. LIB IV. Cap. 1. Of the Greatness of things Eternal p. 337. Cap. 2. The Greatness of the Eternal honour of the Just p. 347. Cap. 3. The Riches of the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven p. 359. Cap. 4. The Greatness of Eternal Pleasures p. 368. Cap. 5. How happy is the Eternal Life of the Just p. 378. Cap. 6. The Excellency and Perfection of the Bodies of the Saints in the Life Eternal p. 389. Cap. 7. How we are to seek after Heaven and to preferr it before all the goods of the Earth p. 399. Cap. 8. Of Evils Eternal and especially of the great Poverty Dishonour and Ignominy of the Damned p. 411. Cap. 9. The Punishment of the Damned from the horribleness of the place into which they are banished from Heaven and made Prisoners in Hell p. 422. Cap. 10. Of the Slavery Chastisement and Pains Eternal p. 429. Cap. 11. Of Eternal Death and Punishment of Talion in the Damned p. 450. Cap. 12. The Fruit which may be drawn from the consideration of Eternal evils p. 459. Cap. 13. The infinite guilt of Mortal Sin by which we lose the felicity of Heaven and fall into eternal evils p. 467. LIB V. Cap. 1. Notable difference betwixt the Temporal and Eternal the one being the End and the other the Means Wherein also is treated of the End for which Man was created p. 487. Cap. 2. By the knowledge of our selves may be known the use of things Temporal and the little esteem we are to make of them p. 506. Cap. 3. The value of goods Eternal is made apparent unto us by the Incarnation of the Son of God p. 515. Cap. 4. The baseness of Temporal goods may likewise appear by the Passion and Death of Christ Jesus p. 524. Cap. 5. The importance of the Eternal because God hath made himself a Means for our obtaining it and hath left his most holy Body as a Pledge of it in the Blessed Sacrament p. 540. Cap. 6. Whether Temporal things are to be demanded of God And that we onely ought to aym in our prayers at goods Eternal p. 553. Cap. 7. How happy are those who renounce Temporal goods for the securing of the Eternal p. 561. Cap. 8. Many who have despised and renounced all that is Temporal p. 569. Cap. 9. The Love which we owe unto God ought so to fill our souls that it leave no place or power to love the Temporal p. 581. Faults escaped in the Print P. 8. L. 25. more R. of more P. 46. L. 28. resting R. rosting P. 65. L. 20. knowest R. knewest p. 139. L. 23. are die R. are to die P. 198. L. 27. Borosus R. Berosus P. 200. L. 29. hard R. hardness P. 232. L. 24. Persians R. Assyrians P. 232. L. 26. Assyrians R. Persians P. 338. L. 10. intention R. intension P. 416. L. 35. the depriving R. in the depriving P. 555. L. 38. know R. knew What else may be faulty the Pen may mend Moreover P. 386. L. 35. after those words any thing to maintain it you may add if you please These representations are to be understood
brought a quintal Vi. Bonfrerium in Exod. 16. it shrunk and contracted it self into the small measure of a gomer with some it diminished and with others swelled and dilated it self into a greater proportion The corruption of it was so sodain that it lasted not one day without being wholly putrified and fill'd with worms and yet notwithstanding all these qualities the enjoying and eating of it cost much toyl and labour first in gathering then grinding then in cooking and performing many other duties requisite for the use of it After the same manner the goods of this life notwithstanding all their faults and evil conditions are not obtained nor enjoyed without much travel and vexation After this all did not enjoy that quality proper to Manna which was to taste like unto that which he that eat it most desired for sinners found this taste limited and not so full and savory as others Even so we with our vices alter and diminish the natural sweetness of the things of this life as we shall see hereafter in it's due place It is true that the appearance of it was good Sept. Interp in cap. 11. Nume species illius species chrystalli for as the 70 Interpreters say it was like Christal clear and transparent The same is the condition of the goods of this life they have the splendor and an appearance but are really more brittle then glass they are variable fading and inconstant and subject to a thousand alterations they are corruptible transitory and mortal and onely by reason of their glittering we seek after them as after things great and eternal Let us then leave the appearance and painted superficies of things and look upon the substance and truth and we shall finde that what is temporal is small and what eternal is great the temporal inconstant the eternal firm the temporal short and temporal the eternal durable and in fine eternal and this onely were enough to make it more esteemed then the temporal although the temporal in all other respects did exceed it but the one being so short and mutable and the other great firm and constant the difference betwixt them can be no less Lib. 7. moral c. 12. then as St. Gregory esteemed it who sayes Immense is that which shall follow and without limit and little is all that which ends And the same Saint notes that the small knowledge and memory of eternity is the main cause of the deceiving of Mankind who have in esteem the false goods of this life and undervalue those spiritual and eternal of the other and therefore speaks in this manner Lib. 8. moral ca. 12. The thoughts of the predestinated alwayes have their intentions placed upon eternity although they possess great felicity in this life and although they be not in danger of death yet ever look upon it as present to the contrary do obstinate souls who love this temporal life as a thing permanent because they consider not how great is the eternity of that which is to come and not considering the solidity of the eternal they judge this Banishment for their Countrey this Darkness for Light and this Race for their Station for those who know not greater matters are not able to judge of the smallest We therefore will begin to draw the Curtain and from the consideration of Eternity and the loose condition of time discover the distance betwixt the goods of heaven and those of earth from whence we shall come to handle the baseness of the temporal and greatness of the eternal Wherefore as a Philosopher said of light that there was nothing more clear nor nothing more obscure the same may be said of time and eternity which being held no less perspicuous are ill understood and are no less obscure and dark then the other But we shall endeavour to make them more intelligible being assisted by the light of Faith the doctrine of Saints and wisdom of the Philosophers CAP. II. How efficacious is the consideration of Eternity for the change of our Lives THe thought of Eternity St. Augustine calls a Great thought Augus in Psal 76. Magna cogit because the memory of it is of great joy unto the Saints and no less horror unto Sinners and unto both of much profit and concernment it causes us to do great matters and shews the smalness of the fading and transitory things of this earth I will therefore from this light begin to discover the large field of the poverty trumpery and baseness of the temporal and recommend the consideration of the eternal the which we ought still to have in our thoughts as David had perpetually in his in whom whilst he was a Sinner it caused horror and confusion and being a Saint it comforted and encouraged him to be yet more holy drawing from this meditation most spiritual and incomparable profit unto his soul and therefore in his Psalms he so often repeats the memory of it not only in the body of them but almost in every passage saying for ever or eternally or world without end there being no inscription or title which he uses more frequently then this against the end or in the end because he composed them with the consideration of eternity which follows the end of this life and for more clearness adds in some of them against the end for the Octave which according to St. Augustine signifies Eternity that being the octave after the 7 dayes of the week into which all time is to resolve which 7 dayes being past there are to be no more weeks but as St. Peter sayes one onely day of perpetual Eternity In this Eternity therefore did the Prophet employ his thoughts by day and his meditations by night this forced him to send up his voice unto Heaven and to cry out unto God this made him mute and took away his speech with men this astonished him and made his pulses fail with the consideration of it this affrighted him and mingled wormwood with the pleasures of this life this made him know the littleness of all that is temporal and made him enter within himself and examine his conscience Finally this brought him to a most miraculous change of life beginning to serve the Lord with more fervor all which effects proceeding from the thoughts of Eternity are apparent in the 76 Psalm therefore sayes he amongst other things Mine eyes prevented the watches I troubled myself and spake not immediately after he gives the reason saying I thought upon the dayes of old and had in my thoughts the years of eternity and meditated on them by night with my heart This thought was the occasion of his long watches on this he meditated before the Sun was risen and on this many hours after it was set and that with so great astonishment of what Eternity was that his spirit â—â—iled him and he trembled with the lively apprehension of what it was either to perish eternally in Hell or to enjoy a blessedness for
which he was wholly absorpt his senses suspended and tied up as it were in a sweet sleep by the content which he received from that consideration Seneca Epist 22. I delighted my self sayes he amongst other things to enquire into the Eternity of Souls and believing it as a thing assuredly true I delivered up my self wholly over unto so great a hope and I was now weary of my self and despised all that remained of age though with perfect and entire health that I might pass into that immense time and into the possession of an eternal world So much could the consideration of Eternity work in this Philosopher that it made him to despise the most precious of temporal things which is life Certainly amongst Christians it ought to produce a greater effect since they not onely know that they are to live eternally but that they are either to joy or suffer eternally according unto their works and life CAP. III. The Memory of Eternity is of it self more efficacious then that of Death ANd therefore it shall much import us to frame a lively conception of Eternity and having once framed it to retain it in continual memory which of it self is more efficacious then that of Death for although both the one and the other be very profitable yet that of Eternity is far more generous strong and fruitful of good works for by it did Virgins preserve their purity Anchorits perform their austere penances and Martyrs suffered their torments the which were not comforted and encouraged in their pains by the fear of death but by the holy reverence and hope of Eternity and the love of God It is true the Philosophers who hoped not for the immortality of the other life as we do yet with the memory of death retired themselves from the vanity of the world despised its greatness composed their actions and ordered their lives according to the rules of reason and vertue Epict. c. 28. apud S. Hier. in ca. 10. Math. Whereupon Epictetus advises us alwayes to have death in our mindes so sayes he Thou shalt never have base and low thoughts and desire any thing with trouble and anxiety And Plato said that by so much man were to be esteemed wiser by how much he more seriously thought of death and for this reason he commanded his Disciples that when they went any journey they should go barefoot signifying thereby that in the way of this life we should alwayes have the end of it discovered which is death and the end of all things But Christians who believe the other life are to add unto this contemplation of death the memory of Eternity the advantages whereof are as far above it as things eternal above those which are temporal The Philosophers were so much moved with the apprehension of death because with it all things of this mortal life were to end death being the limit whereunto they might enjoy their riches honours and delights and no further others desired to die because their evils and afflictions were to die with them If then death amaze some only because it deprives them of the goods of this life which by a thousand other wayes use to fail and which of themselves even before the death of the owner are corruptible dangerous and full of cares and if others hope for death onely because it frees them from the evils of life which in themselves are short and little as all things temporal are why should not we be moved by the thought of Eternity which secures us goods great and everlasting and threatens us with evils excessive and without end Without doubt then if we rightly conceive of Eternity the memory of it is much more powerful then that of death and if of this wise men have had so great an esteem and advised others to have the same much more ought to be had of that of Eternity Zenon desirous to know an efficacious means how to compose his life bridle his carnal appetites and observe the lawes of vertue had recourse unto the Oracle which remitted him unto the memory of death saying Go to the dead consult with them and there thou shalt learn what thou demandest There seeing the dead possess nothing of what they had and that with their lives they had breathed out all their felicity he might learn not to be puffed up with pride nor to value the vanities of the world For the same cause some Philosophers did use to drink in the skulls of dead men that they might keep in continual memory that they were to die and were not to enjoy the pleasures of this life although necessary unless alloid by some such sad remembrance In like manner many great Monarchs used it as an Antidote against the blandishments of fortune that their lives might not be corrupted by their too great prosperity Philip King of Macedonia commanded a Page to tell him three times every morning Philip thou art a man putting him in mind that he was to die and leave all The Emperor Maximilian the first four years before he died commanded his Coffin to be made which he carried along with him whither soever he went which with a mute voice might tell him as much Maximilian thou art to die and leave all The Emperors also of the East amongst other Ensignes of Majesty carried in their left hand a book with leaves of gold which they called Innocency the which was full of earth and dust in signification of humane mortality and to put them in minde hereby of that ancient doom of Mankind dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return And not without much conveniency was this memorial of death in the form of a book nothing being of more instruction and learning then the memory of death being the onely School of that great truth where we may best learn to undeceive our selves With reason also was the book called Innocency For who will dare to sin that knows he is to die Neither were the Emperors of the Abissins careless herein Nicol. God lib. 1. de rebus Abiss â—a 8. for at their Coronations amongst many other Ceremonies there was brought unto them a vessel fill'd with earth and a dead mans skull advertising them in the beginning that their Raign was to have a speedy end Finally all Philosophers agreed in this that all their Philosophy was the meditation of death But without doubt the contemplation of Eternity is far beyond all Philosophy it is a greater matter and of far more astonishment for the torments of Hell to last for ever then for the greatest Empires sodainly to have an end more horrible to suffer eternal evils then to be deprived of temporal goods greater marvel that our souls are immortal then that our bodies are to die Wherefore Christians especially those who aim to be perfect are rather to endeavour in themselves a strong conception of Eternity then to stir up the fear of death whose memory ought not to be needful for the
perish not for the paths of this life are full of dangers And with reason did Isidorus Clarius compare it to a narrow Bridge Isid Clar. juxt S. Greg. scarce broad enough to receive our feet under which was a Lake of black and filthy water full of serpents and of ugly and poisonous creatures which onely sustained themselves by feeding on those unfortunate people who fell from the Bridge on either side were pleasant Gardens Meadows Fountains and beautiful Buildings But as it were extream madness in him who was to pass so dangerous a Bridge to entertain himself with gazing upon those Gardens and Buildings without taking care where he set his foot so is it as great a fully in him who is to pass this transitory life to apply himself to pleasures and delights without taking care of his wayes or works To this Cesarius Arelatensis adds That the greatest danger of of this Bridge consisted towards the end where it was narrowest and this is the most streight passage of Death Let us therefore if we intend to gain Heaven look how we place our feet in this life least we misplace them in death and perish in that Eternity wherein our life is to conclude O Eternity Eternity how few there are that provide for thee O Eternity peril of perils and if we miss the mark whereat we ought to aim above all dangers whence comes it that we prepare not for thee whence comes it that we fear thee not which art to endure as long as God is God this present life is but to last a very little time our forces will fail us our senses wax dull our riches leave us the commodities of the world fly from us the want of breath make an end of us and the world at last call us out of it what then will become of us we are to be sent into a strange Countrey for a long time why do we not forecast what to do when we come thither But that we may the better see this our condition and so learn to be more cautious I will relate another Parable of the same St. John Damascen In vita Josaph There was saith he a City very great and populous whereof the Inhabitants had a Custom to elect for their King a stranger who had no knowledge of that Kingdom and Common-wealth This King for a year they suffered to do what he list but that being ended and he most secure without fear or apprehension of any thing amiss thinking he should raign as long as live they suddainly came upon him despoiled him of his royal apparel dragging him naked through the streets and banishing him into an Island far off where he came to suffer extream poverty not having wherewith to feed or cloth himself his fortune without thinking on it wholly changing into the contrary his riches into poverty his joy into sadness his dainties into hunger and his royal purple into nakedness But once it happened that he whom they elected was a prudent and a subtil man and having understood from one of his Counsellors this evil and wicked Custom of the Citizens and their notable inconstancy grew not proud and haughty with the Dignity of the Kingdom which they had conferred upon him but became careful in providing for himself that when he should be deposed and banished into that Island which he every moment expected he might not as his Predecessours perish with poverty and hunger The course he took was during his Reign to transport secretly into that Island all the Treasures of the City which were very great The year being ended the Citizens according to their Custome with his Predecessours came in an uproar to depose him of his Office and Royalty and to send him in exile into the Island whither he went without trouble having before-hand provided wherewith he might live in honour and plenty whilst the preceding Kings perish'd with want and penury This is that which passes in this world and the course which a wise man ought to take That City signifies this world foolish vain and most inconstant wherein when we think to reign we are suddenly despoiled of all we have and sent naked into our Graves when we least look for it and are most busie in enjoying and entertaining our selves with the fading and transitory pleasures of this life as if we were immortal without so much as thinking on Eternity whither we are in a short time to be banisht A Region far off and far removed from our thoughts whither we are to go naked and forsaken of all where we are to perish with an eternal death and shall only live to be tormented into a Land of the dead obscure and dark where no light enters but everlasting horrour and eternal sorrow inhabits He is therefore wise who foreseeing that he is to be despoiled of all he hath in this world provides for the next making such use of time in this life that he may finde the profit of it in Eternity and with the holy works of pennance charity and alms transports his Treasures into that Region where he is to dwell for ever Let us therefore think upon the Eternal and for it despise the Temporal and we shall gain both the one and the other The consideration of Eternity St. Gregory understood to be figured by the Store-house well furnished with precious wine into which the Spouse saith that the Bridegroom brought her and in her ordained Charity because saith he he who shall with a profound attention consider in his mind Eternity may glory in himself saying he hath ordained in me charity by which thought he shall better preserve the order of love loving himself the less and God and all things for God the more he shall not make use of the temporal things of this life not even of those which are most necessary but in order to the Eternal CAP. V. What is Eternity according to St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Dionysius LEt us therefore begin to declare something of what is inexplicable and to frame some kind of conception of what is incomprehensible whereby Christians knowing or to speak more properly being less ignorant of what is Eternity they may have a horrour either to commit a sin or to omit an act of vertue trembling in themselves that for matters of so small value as are those of the Earth they are to lose things so great and precious as are those of Heaven Agrippina perceiving the great lavishness of her Son who poured out gold and silver as if it had been water desirous to reform his prodigality upon a time when the Emperour had commanded about a quarter of a Million to be bestowed upon some Minion of his caused that Money and as much more to be spread upon a Table and placed where he was to pass to the end that seeing with his own eyes the mighty mass of Treasure which he so wastfully mispent he might after with more discretion moderate his vast expences
Truly the folly and vanity of Man admits no other cure than to set before his eyes that for the small and momentary pleasure of a sin committed against the Law of God he loses and unthriftily casts away that which is to last for ever For this cause we ought to consider what it is to have no end what it is to last for ever what it is to be Eternal But who is able to declare this since Eternity is an immense Ocean whose bottom cannot be found a most obscure abyss wherein are sunk all the faculties of humane understanding an intricate Labyrinth out of which there is no issue a perpetual Present without what was or what shall be a continued Circle whose Centre is in every part and Circumference no where a great Year which ever begins and is never ended finally that which never can be comprehended yet ever ought to be pondered and thought upon But that we may say something and frame some conception of it let us see in what manner the Saints have defined it St. Gregory Nazianzen knows not what it is but only what it is not and therefore says Eternity is not time nor part of time because time and each part of time pass away but in Eternity nothing does nor ever shall pass All the torments with which a Soul enters into hell shall after millions of years past torment him as lively and entirely as at the first beginning neither shall the joyes with which the just enter into Heaven ever in the least sort diminish Time hath this property to draw along with it custome which at length lessens the sense of what at first was grievous but Eternity is ever the same ever entire in it nothing passes the pains with which the damned begin shall after a thousand ages be the same they were at first and the glory which he who is saved receives in the first instant shall ever appear fresh and new unto him Eternity hath no parts all is of a piece in it there is no diminution nor lessening And although the pleasures of this life which go along with time are of this condition that in time they lessen and that there is no delight in this world which by long enjoying becomes not troublesome and tedious and that to the contrary even griefs and and pains with continuance either grow less or are absolutely cured yet far otherwise is the web which Eternity weaves it is all uniform in it there is no joy which wearies us nor any pain which by continuance abates or becomes less sensible in so much as Eternity according to St. Dionysius Areopagita Cap. 10. de divin nomin is the immutability immortality and incorruptibility of a thing wholly and altogether existent a space which perishes not but is always subsistent after the same manner and therefore as the Wise man saith Wheresoever the tree falls there it shall for ever remain if thou shalt fall as an infernal fire-brand into the bottom of Hell there shalt thou be for ever burning whilest God is God it not being in the power of any to redeem thee thence nor in thy own so much as to turn from one side to the other Eternity is immutable because incompatible with change it is immortal because not capable of end and incorruptible because it cannot suffer diminution The evils of this life how desperate of remedy soever yet want not this comfort that they are either eased with change or ended by death or lessened by corruption But all this is wanting in eternal evils The change of pains serves for a refreshment and the infirm man how afflicted soever by turning from side to side receives some ease but eternal pains shall whilst God is God remain in the same posture force and vigour without change at all If the most pleasant and wholesome food of Manna only because continual caused vomiting and became loathsome What shall those pains which shall last for ever What torments shall they cause since they are to remain still after the same manner The Sea hath his ebbs and flows the Rivers their encreases the Planets their various Aspects the Year his four Seasons the greatest Feavers have their relaxations and the sharpest pain arriving at the height uses to decrease only eternal torments shall never suffer declination nor shall the eyes of the damned ever see a change The plain and even way which seems most easie wearies the Traveller because it wants variety What weariness shall then the ways of Eternity cause and those perpetual pains which can neither change end nor diminish The torments whereunto Cain entred now five thousand years ago are after so many ages past still the same they were at first and what they now are shall be so many ages more to come they are measured by the Eternity of God and the duration of his unhappiness by the duration of the Divine Glory whilst God lives he shall wrastle with death and shall immortally continue dying that eternal death still living and that miserable life still dying containing the worst of life and the worst of death those wretched Souls living only that they may suffer torments and dying that they may not enjoy comfort having neither the content of life nor the end of death but contrariwise for their greater torment have the pain of death and duration of life On the other part behold the happy lot of them that die in Grace their glory shall be immortal without fear of ending their happiness immutable without capacity of growing old their Crown incorruptible without danger of withering where no day shall pass without joy whose content shall be ever new and whose Glory flourish for perpetual Eternities and whose happiness shall ever be the same And that very Glory which St. Michael was six thousand years ago possest of the same he enjoys this very instant as fresh and new as the first day and shall six millions of years to come as new as now CAP. VI. What Eternity is according unto Boëtius and Plotinus LEt us now hear the Opinions of Severinus Boëtius and Plotinus two great Philosophers and the one of them no less a Divine what they conceive concerning this great Mystery and secret of Eternity Boëtius defines Eternity to be Lib. 5. de cons Philosopho A total and perfect possession of an indeterminable life which Definition although it principally belongs unto the Eternity of God yet it may-be also applied unto the Eternity of reasonable Creatures since they also enjoy a total and perfect possession of happiness in an eternal life never to end With reason he calls it a possession for the fulness it hath of joy possession being the best way of enjoying the which implies a ful Dominion of what it possesses for he who hath a thing in loan or trust may be said to enjoy it but not with that liberty as he who possesses it He says moreover that this possession is total because it is of
world are not to affright us since they are to cease and determine By how much Eternity enobles and adds unto the greatness of those things which are eternal by so much doth Time vilifie and debase those things which are temporal and therefore as all which is eternal although it were little in it self ought to be esteemed as infinite so all which is temporal although it were infinite yet is to be esteemed as nothing because it is to end in nothing If a man were Lord of infinite worlds and possest infinite riches if they were at last to end and he to leave them they were to be valued as nothing and if all things temporal have this evil property to sail and perish they ought to have no more esteem then if they were not with good reason then is life it self to be valued as nothing since nothing is more frail nothing more perishing and in conclusion is little more than if it had no being at all Possessions Inheritances Riches Titles and other goods of fortune remain when man is gone but not his Life A little excess of cold or heat makes and end of that a sharp winde the infectious breath of a sick person a drop of poison makes it vanish in so much as no glass is so frail as it Glass without violence may last long but the life of man ends of it self glass may with care be preserved for many ages but nothing can preserve the life of man it consumes it self All this was well understood by King David who was the most powerful and happy Prince the Hebrews ever had as ruling over both the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel with all which was promised by God unto the Israelites but not until his time possessed his Dominions besides extending over many other Provinces See 1. Paralip 29. what he left him towards the building of the Temple onely so as gold rowld up and down his House and Court and he left at his death mighty treasures unto his Son Salomon Yet this so fortunate a Prince considering that his greatness was to have an end valued it as nothing and not onely esteemed his Kingdoms and treasures as a vanity but even his life it self Wherefore he sayes Thou hast put O Lord a measure unto my dayes and my substance is as nothing all my Rents all my Kingdoms all my Trophies all my Treasures all which I possess although so powerful a King all is nothing And presently adds Doubtless all is vanity all what living man is Psal 38. all his whole life is vanity and nothing that belongs to him so frail as himself Of so mean value are the things of this world although we were to enjoy them for many ages but being to end so quickly and perhaps more sodainly than we can imagine what account is to be made of them O if we could but frame a true conception of the shortness of this life how should we despise the pleasures of it This is a matter of such importance that God commanded the principal his Prophets that he should goe into the Streets and Market-places and proclaim aloud How frail and short was the life of man For the Prophet Isaiah being about to prophesie of the most high and hidden mysterie which ever God revealed unto man which is the incarnation of the eternal Word was suddenly commanded by the Lord to lift up his voice and to crie aloud unto whom the Prophet replied What is it O Lord that I must crie aloud The Lord said That all flesh is grass and all the glory of it at the flowers of the field For as the grass which is cut in the morning withers before night and as the flower is quickly faded so is the life of all flesh the beauty and splendour of it passing and withering in a day Upon which place saith St. Hierome Hieronin Comment He who shall look upon the frailty of our flesh and that every moment of an hour we increase and decrease without ever remaining in the same state and that even what we now speak dictate or write flyes away with some part of our life will not doubt to say his flesh is grass and the glory of it as the flower of the field And presently after He that was yesterday an Infant is now a Boy and will suddenly be a Youth and even until old age runs changing through uncertain conditions of lite and perceaves himself first to be an old man before he begins to admire that he is not still a Boy In another place the same Saint meditating upon the death of Nepotianus who died in the flower of his age breaks out into these complaints In Epitaph Nepot O miserable condition of humane nature Vain is all that we live without Christ all flesh is hay and all the glory of it as the flower of the field Where is now that comely visage where is now the dignity of the whole body with which as with a fair garment the beauty of the Soul was once cloathed Ay pitty the Lilly is withered by a Southern blast and the purple of the Violet turned into paleness And immediately adds Why do we not therefore consider what in time must become of us and what will we or will not cannot be far off for should our life exceed the terme of 900 years and that the dayes Mathusalam were bestowed upon us yet all this length of life once past and pass it must were nothing and betwixt him who lives but ten years and him who lives a thousand the end of life and the unavoidable necessity of death once come all is the same save onely he who lives longer departs heavier loaden with his sins This frailty therefore and brevity of humane life being so certain and evident yet our Lord would have his Prophet publish it together with the most hidden and unknown mysterie of his incarnation and the manner of the worlds redemption which even the most high Scraphins did not conceive possible and all because men will not suffer themselves to be perswaded of this truth nor practically apprehend the shortness of their life Nay seeing death seiseth upon others yet they will not believe that it shall happen unto themselves and although they hear of it hourly yet it appears unto them as a hidden mysterie which they cannot understand God therefore commanded the Prophet Isaiah that he should proclaim and publish it with a loud voice as a thing new and of great importance that it might so penetrate and link into the hearts of men Let us therefore receive this truth from God himself All flesh is grass All age is short All time flyes All life vanishes and a great multitude of years are but a great nothing Let us also hear how true this is from those who lived the longest Jux Isi l. de vita mor. Pat. c. 24. and have had the greatest experience of what it is to live Perhaps thou mayst
much happiness he had not made use of it although the misfortune chanced without his fault But the miserable damned in hell when they shall perceive that by their own fault they have lost the occasion of so great blessings as are those of heaven it is incredible what grief and resentment shall possess them CAP. XV. What is Time according to Plato and Plotinus and how deceitful is all that which is temporal THat we may yet better understand the smalness and baseness of all which is temporal I will not pass in silence the description of Time made by Platinus a famous Philosopher amongst the Platonicks who sayes that Time is an Image or Shadow of Eternity The which is conformable unto holy Scripture not onely unto that of David when he sayes that Man passes in a figure that is in time but unto that of the Wise-man Sap. 2. who defines Time in these words Our Time is the passing of a Shadow The which is no other than the imperfect moveable and vain Image of a thing consistent and solid Job 8. Job also sayes As a shadow are our dayes upon the earth And the Prophet David elsewhere My dayes have slided away as a shadow And in many other places of Scripture the same comparison is used to signifie the swiftness of Time and the vanity of our life Neither is it without mystery that the same comparison is so often used in those sacred Writings For truly few comparisons can be found more apt and proportionable for the expressing of what is Time and Eternity than that of a Statue and the Swadow of it For as a Statue remains for many years and Ages firm stable and immoveable without encrease or diminution whilest the Shadow is in continual motion now greater now lesser So is it with Time and Eternity Eternity is firm fixed and immoveable without receiving less or more Time is ever moving and changing as the Shadow which is great in the morning less at mid-day and towards night returns to its former greatness every moment changing and moving from one side unto another In the same manner the life of man hath no instant fixt but still goes on in perpetual changes and in the greatest prosperity is for the most part shortest Aman the same day he thought to sit at the Table of King Assuerus Esth 3. 7. by whom he had been exalted above all the Princes of his Kingdom was ignominiously hang'd Jud. 13. Holofernes when he hoped to enjoy the best day of his life was miserably beheaded by a woman King Baltassar in the most solemn and celebrated day of his whole raign Dan. 5. wherein he made ostentation of his great riches and royal entertainment was slain by the Persians Act. 12. Herod when he most desired to shew his Majesty being cloathed in a rich habit of Tissue embroidered with gold and by the acclamations of the people saluted as a God was mortally struck from heaven There is nothing constant in this life The Moon hath every Moneth her changes but the life of man hath them every day every hour Now he is sick now in health now sorrowful now merry now cholerick Sinesius hym 6. now fearful in so much as Sinesius not without reason compared his life unto Euripus a Streight of the Sea which ebbs and flows seaven times in a day as the most constant which is the most just man in the world falls every day seaven times The shadow wheresoever it passes leaves no track behinde it and of the greatest personages in the world when they are once dead there remains no more than if they had never lived How many preceding Emperors in the Assyrian Monarchy were Lords of the world as well as Alexander and now we remain not onely ignorant of their Monuments but know not so much as their names And of the same great Alexander what have we at this day except the vain noise of his fame Venus Alsâ—rsus Kikâ—â—ius de noviss art 4. Let that Company of Philosophers inform us who the day following assembled at his dead Corps One of them said Yesterday the whole circumference of the world sufficed not Alexander this day two yards of ground serve his turn Another in admiration cried out Yesterday Alexander was able to redeem innumerable people from the hands of death this day he cannot free himself A third exclaims Yesterday Alexander oppressed the whole earth and this day the earth oppresses him and there is no footstep in it left by which he passed Moreover how great is the difference betwixt a Statua of Gold or Marble and the Shadow That is solid and of a precious substance and this hath no being or body In the same manner the life eternal is most precious and of great concernment the temporal vain and miserable without substance The Shadow hath no other being but to be a privation of the most excellent quality in nature and of the most beautiful thing the world produces which is the light of the Sun In the same manner this life without substance or being is a privation of our greatest happiness Wherefore Job said Job 9. His dayes fled away and his eyes saw not what was good This said he who was a Prince and possessed great riches and many Servants and a numerous Family and yet he sayes that in his life he saw not what was good which he might say with much truth because the goods of this life are not to be called such and if they were yet the pleasure of them endures so short a space as they are done before we are sensible of them and if they should continue some time yet being subject to end they are to be esteemed as if they were not The which was confessed by a certain Cavalier called Rowland Hist de S. Dom. who having been present at a Feast celebrated with great cost and bravery to the high content and satisfaction of the invited Guests at night when he returned home cried out with much bitterness of spirit Where is the Feast we had to day where is the glory of it how is this day past without leaving any tract behinde it even so shall the rest of this life pass without leaving any thing to suceed it but eternal sorrow This consideration sufficed to make him change his life and the next day to enter into Religion And as in a shadow all is obscurity so this life is full of darkness and deceit Whereupon Zacharias said That men sat in darkness and in the shadow of death Much are we deceived whilest we live in this body of death since this life although short appears long unto us and being miserable yet we are pleased and content with it and being nothing yet it seems as if it were all things and there is not any danger which men undergoe not for the love they bear it even unto the hazard of Eternity Doubtless this is the most prejudicial
powerful is subject to most impetuous storms whose end is to be sunk and overthrown O how wavering and uncertain is the height of the greatest honours false is the hope of man and vain is all his glory affected with feigned and fawning flatteries O uncertain life due unto perpetual toyl and labour what doth it now profit me to have fired so many stately and lofty buildings to have destroyed so many Cities and their people What doth it now profit me O Brother to have raised so many costly Palaces of Marble when I now die in the open field and in the sight of heaven O how many things doest thou now think of doing not knowing the bitterness of their end Thou beholdest me now dying and know that thou also shalt quickly follow me § 2. But let us forbear to look upon those several kindes of death which are incident to humane nature Let us onely consider that which is esteemed the most happy when we die not suddenly or by violence but by some infirmity which leasurely makes an end of us or by a pure resolution which naturally brings death along with it What greater misery of mans life than this that that death should be accounted happy not that it is so but because it is less miserable than others for what grief and sorrow doth not he pass who dies in this manner how do the accidents of his infirmities afflict him The heat of his Fever which scorches his entrails The thirst of his mouth which suffers him not to speak The pain of his head which hinders his attention The sadness and melancholy of his heart proceeding from the apprehension that he is to die besides other grievous accidents which are usually more in number than a humane body hath members to suffer together with remedies which are commonly no less painful than the evils themselves To this add the grief of leaving those he loves best and above all the uncertainty whither he is to goe to heaven or hell And if onely the memory of death be said to be bitter what shall be the experience Saul who was a man of great courage oncly because it was told him that the next day he was to die fell half dead upon the ground with fear For what news can be more terrible unto a sinner than that he is to die to leave all his pleasure in death and to give an account unto God for his life past If lots were to be cast whether one should have his flesh pluckt off with burning pincers or be made a King with what fear and anxiety of mind would that man expect the issue how then shall he look who in the agony of his death wrastles with Eternity and within two hours space looks for glory or torments without end What life can be counted happy if that be happy which ends with so much misery If we will not believe this let us ask him who is now passing the traunces of death what his opinion is of life Let us now enquire of him when he lies with his breast sticking forth his eyes sunk his feet dead his knees cold his visage pale his pulses without motion his breath short a Crucifix in one hand and a Taper in the other those who assist at his death bidding him say Jesus Jesus and advising him to make an Act of Contrition what will this man say his life was but by how much more prosperous by so much more vain and that all his felicity was false and deceitful since it came to conclude in such a period what would he now take for all the honours of this world Certainly I believe he would part with them at an easie rate Nay if they have been offensive to God Almighty he would give all in his power he had never enjoyed them and would willingly change them all for one Confession well made Philip the third was of this mind and would at that time have exchanged his being Monarch of all Spain and Lord of so many Kingdomes in the four parts of the world for the Porters Keyes of some poor Monastery Death is a great discoverer of truth What thou wouldest then wish to have been be now whilest it is in thy power A fool thou art if thou neglect it now when thou mayst and then wish it when it is too late He who unto the hour of his death hath enjoyed all the delights the world can give him at that hour what remains with him Nothing or if any thing a greater grief And what of all his penances and labours suffered for Christ Certainly if he had endured more than all the Martyrs he shall then feel no pain or grief of them all but much comfort Judge then if it shall not be better for thee to do that now which thou shalt then know to have been the better Consider of how little substance all temporal things will appear when thou shalt be in the light of eternal The honours which they have given thee shall be no more thine the pleasures wherein thou hast delighted can be no more thine thy riches are to be anothers See then whether the happiness of this life which is not so long as life it self be of that value that for it we should part with eternal felicity I beseech thee ponder what is life and what is death Life is the passing of a shadow short troublesome and dangerous a place which God hath given us in time for the deserving of Eternity Consider with thy self why God leads us about in the Circuit of this life when he might at the first instant have placed us in heaven Was it perhaps that we should here mispend our time like beasts and wallow in the base pleasures of our senses and daily invent new Chimera's of vain and frivolous honours No certainly it was not but that by vertuous actions we might gain heaven shew what we owe unto our Creator and in the middest of the troubles and afflictions of this life discover how loyal and faithful we are unto our God For this he placed us in the Lists that we should take his part and defend his honour for this he entred us into this Militia and Warfare for as Job sayes the life of man is a warfare upon earth that here we might fight for him and in the middest of his and our Enemies shew how true and faithful we are unto him Were it fit that a Souldier in the time of Battail should stand disarmed passing away his time at Dice upon a Drum-head and what laughter would that Roman Gladiator cause who entring into the place of Combat should set him down upon the Arena and throw away his Arms This does he who seeks his ease in this life and sets his affections upon the things of the earth not endeavouring those of heaven nor thinking upon death where he is to end A Peregrination is this life and what passenger is so besotted with the pleasures of the way that he forgets
consider this Wherefore busie we our selves about Temporal things and the affairs of this life which we are instantly to leave and enter into a Region of Eternity Less are a thousand years in respect of Eternity than a quarter of an hour in respect of threescore years Why are we then negligent in that short time we are to live in acquiring that which is to endure for a world of worlds Death is a moment placed betwixt this life and the next in which we are to traffick for eternity Let us not therefore be careless but let us remember how much it imports us to die well and to that end let us endeavour to live well §. 3. Besides all this although one should die the most happy death that can be imagined yet it suffices to behold the dead Body when the Soul hath left it how ugly and noisome the miserable Carcass remains that even friends flye from it and scarce dare stay one night alone with it The nearest and most obliged Kindred procure it in all haste to be carried forth a doors and having wrapt it in some course Sheet throw it into the Grave and within two dayes forget it and he who in life could not be contained in great and sumptuous Palaces is now content with the narrow lodging of seaven foot of earth he who used to rest in rich and dainty Beds hath for his Couch the hard ground and as Isaias saith for his Mattress moths and for his Covering Worms his Pillows at best the bones of other dead persons then heaping upon him a little earth and perhaps a Gravestone they leave his flesh to be feasted on by the worms whilest his heirs triumph in his riches He who gloried in the exercise of Armes and was used to revel at Balls and Festivals is now stiffe and could his hands and feet without motion and all his senses without life He who with his power and pride trampled upon all is now trod under foot by all Consider him eight dayes dead drawn forth of his Grave how gastly and horrible a spectacle he will appear and wherein differ from a dead Dog thrown upon a Dunghil Behold then what thou pamperst a Body which shall perhaps within four dayes be eaten by loathsome vermin Whereupon doest thou found thy vain pretensions which are but Castles in the air founded upon a little earth which turning into dust the whole Fabrick falls to ground See wherein all humane greatness concludes and that the end of man is no less loathsome and miserable than his beginning Let this Consideration serve thee as it hath done many Servants of Christ to despise all things of this life Alex. Faya to 2. Joh. Major verbo Mors. Ex. 21. Alexander Faya writes that having opened the Vault wherein lay interred the Body of a principal Count they who were present perceived upon the face of the dead person a Toad of an extraordinary greatness which accompanied with many other filthy and loathsome wormes and vermin was feeding upon his flesh which caused so great a horror and amazement that they all fled The which so soon as it came unto the knowledge of the Son of that Count who was then in the flower of his age he would needs goe and behold the spectacle and looking seriously upon it he broke into these speeches These are the friends which we breed and provide for with our delicacies for these we rest upon soft Beds and lodge in gilt Chambers adorned with Tapestries and make them grow and encrease with the vanity of our dainties Were it not better to prevent them by Fasts and Penances and Austerities in our life that they may not thus insult upon us after death With this conderation quitting his fair Possessions and flying privately away accompanied onely with a lively desire of being poor for Christ which he accounted for the greatest riches he came to Rome where chastising the body with much rigour and living in the holy fear of the Lord he at last became a Collier and by his labour sustained his poor life Finally coming one day unto the City to sell his coles he fell into a grievous sickness which having endured with marvelous patience he at last delivered his most happy Soul into the hands of his Redeemer and that very instant of his death all the Bells of the City rung themselves with which Miracle the Pope and the Roman Court being marvelously astonished his Confessor related unto them all that happened and informed them both of the condition and sanctity of the dead person and there being at the same time in Rome some Gentlemen and Souldiers belonging to the same Prince who came in search of their Master and finding him deceased carried home his holy Body with much joy and reverence unto his Country The Sight of the dead Body of the Empress Donna Isabella Wife unto the Emperour Charles the fift wrought no less effect in the heart of Blessed Francesc◠de Borgia then Marquess of Lombay who being appointed to wait upon the Coarse unto Granada where it was to be interred and being to deliver it bare-faced according to custome to the end it might appear to be the same Body he caused the sheet of Lead wherein it was wrapped to be opened which immediately cast forth so horrible a stench that those who were present not able to endure it were forced to retire and withal the face appeared so foul and deformed that not any of the attendants durst take their oath that that was the Empress's Body Who sees not here the vanity of the world what is of more respect and esteem than the Bodies of great Kings and Princes whilest they live and now dead the Guards and Gentlemen which are to wait upon them flye from them Who are accounted more happy than they who have the fortune to be near their persons They are spoken unto upon the knee as if they were Gods but being dead all forsake them and even Toads Worms and Dogs dare approach and eat them A good testimony of this was Queen Jezabell whose pamperd Body adored whilest she lived was being dead ignominiously torn in pieces by Dogs But to return to our Story The Marquess remaining alone behind the rest began to consider what the Empress once was and what he now beheld her Where was the beauty of that face but become worms and putrifaction where that Majesty and gravity of countenance which made all reverence her and those people happy who beheld her but now grown so hideous that her most obliged Servants leave and abandon her Where is now the Royal Scepter but resolved into filth and corruption This consideration so changed his heart that despising what was temporal and now wholly seeking what was eternal he determined never after to serve that Lord who was mortal The very memory of the loathsomness of a dead Body may serve to make us despise the beauty of that which is living as St. Peter Damian advises
he not exempt her from that inviolable Law of Death What inchantment than is this that Death being so certain we will not suffer our selves to understand it nor be perswaded that it is so Thou art to dye assure thy self of that An irrevocable Law is this and without remedy Thou must dye The time will come when those eyes with which thou readest this shall be burst and lose their sight those hands which thou now imployest be without sense or motion that body which thou movest from place to place with such agility shall be stiffe and cold this mouth which now discourses shall be mute without breath or spirit and this flesh which thou now pamperest shall be consumed and eaten by loathsome worms and vermin An infallible thing it is that the time will come when thou shalt be covered with earth thy body stink and rot and appear more noysome and more horrible unto the senses than a dead Dog putrified upon a Dunghil The time will come when thou shalt be forgotten as if thou hadst never been and those that passe shall walk over thee without remembring that such a man was born Consider this and perswade thy self that thou must dye as well as others that which hath happened to so many must happen also unto thee thou which art now afraid of the dead must dye thy self thou which loathest to behold an open Sepulcher where lie the half putrified bones and flesh of others must putrifie and rot thy self Think upon this seriously and reflect with thy self soberly how thou shalt look when thou art dead and this consideration will give thee a great knowledge what thy life is and make thee despise the pleasures of it Truly such is the condition of death that although to dye were onely contingent and no wise certain yet because it might happen it ought to make us very careful and sollicitous If God had at first created the world replenished with people and some one before it was known what death was had fallen sick of a pestilential Fever and should have suffered in the sight of the rest the accidents of that infirmity those violent fits of heat that scorching thirst that restless unquietness of mind and body tossing and tumbling from side to side that raging frenzie which bereaves him of his judgment and at last they should behold him pale and wan wholly disfigured strugling with death and giving the last gasp the Body after to remain stiffe cold and immoveable how would they remain astonisht with the sight of that misery which would appear much greater when after three or four dayes the Body begun to smell and corrupt to be full of worms and filth Without doubt a mortal sadness would seise upon them all and every one would fear lest some such miserable condition might happen unto himself And although God should say I will not that all shall dye I will content my self with the death of some few but should leave those uncertain whom this would suffice to make all to tremble each one would fear lest he were one of those designed for that misfortune If then in this case death being uncertain all would quake because all might dye why remain we so supinely careless since it is sure all must dye If death being doubtful cause such a terrour why do we not fear it being certain Nay though God should further say that onely one of all those in the world should dye but did not declare who that one were yet all would fear Why then doest thou not now fear when all men must infallibly dye and perhaps thou the first But if God should yet further proceed to reveal that one appointed to dye and he should notwithstanding live in that loose and careless manner as thou now doest how would the rest of the world admire his negligence and vain temerity what would they say certainly they would cry out unto him Man thou that art to turn into dust why livest thou in that loose manâ—er Man that art to be eaten by wormes why doest thou pamper thy self Man which art to appear before the Tribunal of God why doest thou not think upon the account that shall be demanded from thee Man which art to end and all things with thee why doest thou make such esteem of vanity We who are to live ever well may we build houses and provide riches because we look for no other life than this which is never to end but thou who art but in this life as a Passenger and art to leave it to morrow what hast thou to do to build houses what hast thou to doe with the cares and business's of this world Wherefore doest thou take thought for those temporal things whereof thou hast no need Care for those of the other life wherein thou art to remain for ever Thou thou art he whom God hath designed to dye why doest thou not believe it or if thou doest why doest thou laugh why doest thou rejoyce why doest thou live so much at ease in a place where thou art a Pilgrim and not to rest leave off the thoughts of the earth and consider whither thou art to goe It is not fitting for thee to live here in mirth and jollity but to retire into some solitary wilderness and there dispose thy self for that terrible traunce which expects thee Let every man therefore say within himself It is I who am to dye and resolve unto dust I have nothing to do with this world the other was made for me and I am onely to care for that in this I am onely a Passenger and am therefore to look upon the eternal whither I am going and am there to make my abode for ever Certain it is that death will come and hurry me along with him All the business therefore I have now is to dispose my self for so hard an encounter and since it is not in the power of man to free me from it I will onely serve that Lord who is able to save me in so certain and imminent a danger Much to this purpose for our undeceiving is that Story set forth by John Major Johan Major Alex. Faya tom 2. 〈◊〉 certain Souldier had served a Marquess for many years with great fidelity for which he was favoured by his Lord with a singular respect and affection The Souldier chanced to fall into his last infirmity which no sooner came unto the knowledge of the Marquess but he instantly came to visit him accompanied with divers expert Physicians and having enquired of his health and spoken many things unto him of much comfort and dearness offered himself to assist him in all things which might conduce to his health or content and wisht him boldly to demand what might be useful or available for him assuring him it should be granted without spare of cost or trouble The sick Souldier after much importunity at last intreated the favour of three things Either that he would afford him some
since he hath employed his omnipotency for our good and profit let us employ our forces and faculties for his glory and service CAP. VI. Of the End of all Time BEsides the end of the particular time of this life the universal end of all time is much to be considered that since humane ambition passes the limits of this life and desires honour and a famous memory after it Man may know that after this death there is another death to follow in which his memory shall also die and vanish away as smoke After that we have finisht the time of this life the end of all time is to succeed which is to give a period unto all which we leave behind us Let man therefore know that those things which he leaves behind for his memory after death are as vain as those which he enjoyed in life Let him raise proud Mausoleums Let him erect Statues of Marble Let him build populous Cities Let him leave a numerous Kindred Let him write learned Books Let him stamp his Name in brass and fix his Memory with a thousand nails All must have an end his Cities shall sink his Statues fall his Family and Linage perish his Books be burned his Memory be defaced and all shall end because all time must end It much imports us to perswade our selves of this truth that we may not be deceived in the things of this world That not only our pleasures and delights are to end in death but our memories at the farthest are to end with Time And since all are to conclude all are to be despised as vain and perishing Cicero although immoderately desirous of fame and honour Cieer in Ep. ad Luc. as appears by a large Epistle of his written unto a friend wherein he earnestly entreats him to write the conspiracy of Cataline which was discovered by himself in a Volume apart and that he would allow something in it unto their ancient friendships and Publish it in his life time that he might enjoy the glory of it whilest he lived yet when he came to consider that the world was to end in Time he perceived that no glory could be immortal and therefore sayes By reason of deluges and burnings of the earth In Somn. Scip. which muâ—â— of necessity happen within a certain time we cannot attain glory not so much as durable for any long time much less eternal In this world no memory can be immortal since Time and the World it self are mortal and the time will come when time shall be no more But this truth is like the memory of death which by how much it is more important by so much men think lest of it and practically do not believe it But God that his divine providence and care might not be wanting hath also in this taken order that a matter of so great concernment should be published with all solemnity first by his Son after by his Apostles and then by Angels Apoc. 10. And therefore St. John writes in his Apocalyps that he saw an Angel of great might and power who descended from heaven having a Cloud for his Garment and his head covered with a Rainbow his face shining as the Sun and his feet as pillars of fire with the right foot treading upon the Sea and with the left upon the Earth sending forth a great and terrible voice as the roaring of a Lyon which was answered by seaven thunders with other most dreadful noises and presently this prodigious Angel lifts up his hand towards Heaven But wherefore all this Ceremony wherefore this strange equipage wherefore this horrid voice and thunder all was to proclaim the death of Time and to perswade us more of the infallibility of it he continued it with a solemn Oath conceived in a Set form of most authentique words listing up his hand towards Heaven and swearing by him that lives for ever and ever who created Heaven and Earth and all which is in it There shall be mo more time With what could this truth be more confirmed than by the Oath of so great and powerful and an Angel The greatness and solemnity of the Oath gives us to understand the weight and gravity of the thing affirmed both in respect of it self and the importance of us to know it If the death of a Monarch or Prince of some corner of the world prognosticated by an Eclipse or Comet cause a fear and amazement in the beholders what shall the death of the whole World and with it all things temporal and of Time it self foretold by an Angel with so prodigious an apparition and so dreadful a noise produce in them who seriously consider it For us also this thought is most convenient whereby to cause in us a contempt of all things temporal Let us therefore be practically perswaded that not onely this life shall end but that there shall be also an end of Time Time shall bereave Man of this life and Time shall bereave the World of his whose end shall be no less horrible than that of Man but how much the whole World and the whole Race of mankind exceeds one particular person by so much shall the universal end surpass in terrour the particular end of this life For this cause the Prophecies which foretell the end of the World are so dreadful that if they were not dictated by the holy Spirit of God they would be thought incredible Christ therefore our Saviour having uttered some of them unto his Disciples because they seemed to exceed all that could be imagined in the conclusion confirmed them with that manner of Oath or Asseveration which he commonly used in matters of greatest importance Math. 13. Luc. 21. Amen which is By my verity or verily I say unto you that the world shall not end before all these things are fulfilled Heaven and earth shall fail but my words shall not fail Let us believe then that Time shall end and that the World shall die and that if we may so say a most horrible and disastrous death let us believe it since the Angels and the Lord of Angels have sworn it If it be so then that those memorials of men which seemed immortal must at last end since the whole Race of man is to end let us only strive to be preserved in the eternal memory of him who hath no end and let us no less despise to remain in the fading memory of men who are to die than to enjoy the pleasures of our senses which are to perish As the hoarding up of riches upon earth is but a deceit of Avarice so the desire of eternizing our memory is an errour of Ambition The covetous man must then leave his wealth when he leaves his life if the Theef in the mean time do not take it from him and fame and renown must end with the World if envy or oblivion deface it not before All that is to end is vain this World therefore and all which
their Angel guardians shall assist by giving testimony how often they have disswaded them from their evil courses and how rebellious and refractory they have still been to their holy inspirations The Saints also shall accuse them that they have laughed at their good counsels and shall set forth the dangers whereunto they them-themselves have been subject by their ill example The just Judge shall then immediately pronounce Sentence in favour of the good in these words of love and mercy Come you blessed of my Father possess the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the creation of the world O what joy shall then fill the Saints Abul in Mat. Jansen Sot Les l. 13. c. 22. alii Isai 30. and what spight and envy shall burst the hearts of Sinners but more when they shall hear the contrary Sentence pronounced against themselves Christ speaking unto them with that severity which was signified by the Prophet Isaiah when he said His lips were filled with indignation and his tongue was a devouring fire More terrible than fire shall be those words of the Son of God unto those miserable wretches when they shall hear him say Depart from me ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for Satan and his Angels With this Sentence they shall remain for ever overthrown and covered with eternal sorrow and confusion Ananias and Saphira were struck dead only with the hearing the angry voice of St. Peter What shall the Reprobate be in hearing the incensed voice of Christ This may appear by what happened unto St. Catharine of Sienna who being reprehended by St. Paul In vita ejus c. 24. who appeared unto her onely because she did not better employ some little parcel of time said that she had rather be disgraced before the whole World than once more to suffer what she did by that reprehension But what is this in respect of that reprehension of the Son of God in the day of vengeance for if when he was led himself to be judged he with two onely words I am overthrew the astonisht multitude of Souldiers to the ground how shall he speak when he comes to judge In vita PP l. 5. apud Rosul In the book of the lives of the Fathers composed by Severus Sulpitius and Cassianus it is written of a certain young man desirous to become a Monk whom his Mother by many reasons which she alleadged pretended to disswade but all in vain for he would by no means alter his intention defending himself still from her importunity with this answer I will save my soul I will assure my salvation it is that which most imports nic She perceiving that her modest requests prevailed nothing gave him leave to do as he pleased and he according to his resolution entred into Religion but soon began to flag and fall from his fervour and to live with much carelesness and negligence Not long after his Mother died and he himself fell into a grievous infirmity and being one day in a Trance was rapt in spirit before the Judgement Seat of God He there found his Mother and divers others expecting his condemnation She turning her eyes and seeing her Son amongst those who were to be damned seemed to remain astonisht and spake unto him in this manner Why how now Son is all come to end in this where are those words thou saidest unto me I will save nay soul was it for this thou didst enter into Religion The poor man being confounded and amazed knew not what to answer but soon after when he returned unto himself and the Lord was pleased that he recovered and escaped his infirmity and considering that this was a divine admonition he gave so great a turn that the rest of his life was wholly tears and repentance and when many wisht him that he would moderate and remit something of that rigour which might be prejudicial unto his health he would not admit of their advices but still answered I who could not endure the reprehension of my Mother how shall I in the day of judgement endure that of Christ and his Angels Let us often think of this and let not onely the angry voice of our Saviour make us tremble Raph. Columb Ser. 2. Domin in Quadr. but that terrible Sentence which shall separate the wicked from his presence Raphael Columba writes of Philip the second King of Spain that being at Mass he heard two of his Grandees who were near him in discourse about some worldly business which he then took no notice of but Mass being ended he called them with great gravity and said unto them onely these few words You two appear no more in my presence which were of that weight that the one of them died of grief and the other ever after remained stupified and amazed What shall it then be to hear the King of Heaven and Earth say Depart ye cursed and if the words of the Son of God be so much to be feared what shall be his works of justice At that instant the fire of that general burning shall invest those miserable creatures Less l. 13. c. 23. the Earth shall open and Hell shall enlarge his throat to swallow them for all eternity accomplishing the malediction of Christ and of the Psalm which saith Psal 54. Let death come upon them and let them sink alive into hell And in another place Coals of fire shall fall upon them Ps 139. and thou shalt cast them into the fire and they shall not subsist in their miseries And in another Psalm Psal 10. Snares fire and sulphur shall rain upon sinners Finally that shall be executed which was spoken by St. John That the Devil Death and Hell and all Apcc. 20. who were not written in the Book of life were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where they shall be eternally tormented with Antichrist and his false Prophets And this is the second death bitter and eternal which comprehends both the Souls and the Bodies of them who have died the spiritual death of sin and the corporal death which is the effect of it The Just shall then rejoyce according to David Psal 57. beholding the vengeance which the Divine Justice shall take upon sinners and sing another song like that of Moses Exod. 15. when the Aegyptians were drowned in the red sea and that Song of the Lamb related by St. John Apoc. 15. Great and marvelous are thy works O Lord God omnipotent just and righteous are thy wayes King of all Eternity who will not fear thee O Lord and magnifie thy name With those and thousand other Songs of joy and jubilee they shall ascend above the Stars in a most glorious triumph until they arrive in the Empyrial Heaven where they shall be placed in thrones of glory which they shall enjoy for an eternity of eternities In the mean time the earth which was polluted for having sustained the Bodies of the damned shall be
undefiled superiour to all grief and pleasure that thou do nothing without a good end nothing feignedly or falsely and that thou regard not what another man does or has to doe Besides that all things which happen thou receive as sent from thence from whence thou thy self art derived Finally that thou attend death with a quiet and temperate minde This is from that great Philosopher CAP. X. The dangers and prejudices of things Temporal THe least evil which we receive from the goods of this world is to deceive and frustrate our hopes and he comes well off whom they forsake onely with a mock For there are many who not onely fail of what they desire but meet with what they abhorre and in place of ease and content meet with trouble and vexation and instead of life finde death and that which they most affect turns often to their destruction Absolon being very beautiful gloried in nothing more than his hair but even those became the instrument of his death and those which he daily combed as if they had been threads of gold served as a halter to hang him upon an Oak To how many have riches which they loved as their life been an occasion of death This is the calamity of the goods of the earth which the Wise-man noted when he said Eccle. 5. Another dangerous evil I beheld under the Sun riches preserved for the destruction of their owner This is the general and incurable infirmity of riches that when they are possessed with affection they turn into the ruine of their possessors either in soul or body and oftentimes in both in so much as we are not to look upon temporal goods as vain and deceitful but as Parricides and our betrayers With much reason the two great Prophets Isaias and Ezechiel compare Egypt by which is signified the world and humane prosperity unto a reed which if you lean upon it breaks and the splinters wound your hands No less brittle than a reed are temporal goods but more dangerous Besides the other faults wherewith they may be charged a very great one is the hurts they doe to life it self for whose good they are desired and are commonly not onely hurtful unto the life eternal but prejudicial even unto the temporal How many for their desire to obtain them have lost the happiness of heaven and the quiet felicity of the earth enduring before death a life of death and by their cares griefs fears troubles labours and afflictions which are caused even by the greatest abundance and felicity before they enter into the hell of the other world suffer a hell in this And therefore St. John writes in his Apocalyps Apoc. 20. that Death and Hell were cast into a lake of fire because the life of sinners of whom he speaks according to the letter is a death and hell and he sayes that this Life and this Hell shall be cast into the other hell and he who places his felicity in the goods of the earth shall pass from one death unto another and from one hell unto another Let us look upon the condition whereunto Aman was brought by his abundance of temporal fortunes into so excessive a pride that because he was denied a respect which was no wayes due unto him he lived a life of death smothering in his breast a hell of rage madness and hatred nothing in this life as he himself confest giving him ease or content What condition more like unto death and hell than this for as in hell there is a privation of all joyes and delights so oftentimes it happens in the greatest felicities upon earth The same which Aman confessed Dionysius felt when he was King of Sicily to wit that he took no content at all in the greatest delights of his Kingdom Tull. in Tuscul q. Boet. l. de consol And therefore Boetius sayes that if we could take away the veil from those who sit in Thrones are clad in Purple and compassed about with Guards of Souldiers we should see the chains in which their Souls are enthralled conformable unto which is that of Plutarch that in name onely they are Princes but in every thing else Slaves A marvelous thing it is that a man compassed about with delights pastimes and pleasures should joy in nothing and in the middest of dancing drinking feasting and dainty fair should find a hell in his heart That in hell amongst so many torments sinners should not finde comfort is no marvail at all but that in this life in the middest of felicity and affluence of all delights he should finde no satisfaction is a great mystery A great mischief than is humane prosperity that amongst all its contents it affords no room for one true one But this is Divine providence that as the Saints who despised what was temporal had in their souls in the very middest of torments a heaven of joy and pleasure as St. Lawrence who in the middest of flames found a Paradice in his heart so the Sinner who neither esteems nor loves any thing besides those of the world should also in the middest of his regalo's and delights finde a life of hell and torments anticipating that whereunto after death he is to enter and be confined So great are the cares and griefs occasioned by the goods of the earth that they oppress those who most enjoy them and shut up the door to all mirth leaving them in a sad night of sorrow This is that which was represented unto the Prophet Zacharias Zach. 5. when before that the Devils came to fetch away the Vessel wherein the woman was enclosed to be carried into a strange Region in the Land of Sanaar there to dwell for ever the mouth of it was stopt up with a talent of Lead and she imprisoned in darkness and obscurity signifying thereby that before a worldling is snatcht away by the Devils to be carried into the mournful land of hell even in this life he is hood-winked and placed in so great a darkness as he sees not one beam of the light of truth so that no content or compleat joy can ever enter into his heart § 2. The reason why the goods of this life are troublesome and incommodious even to life it self is for the many dangers they draw along with them the obligations wherein they engage us the cares which they require the fears which they cause the affronts which they occasion the straights whereunto they put us the troubles which they bring along with them the disordinate desires which accompany them and finally the evil conscience which they commonly have who most esteem them With reason did Christ our Redeemer call riches thorns because they ensnare and wound us with danger losses unquietness and fears Wherefore Job said of the rich man Job 20. Greg. l. 15. Mor. c. 12. When he shall be filled he shall be straightned he shall burn and all manner of grief shall fall upon him The which St.
felicity in pamparing himself here will be tormented hereafter and he who is unjustly flattered and honoured here shall be justly scornd and despised there This was well declared by St. Vincent Ferrer in a comparison of the Faulcon and the Hen. The Hen whilest she lives seeks her food in the dirt and dunghils and at best feeds now and then upon some bran or light corn The Faulcon to the contrary is cherished carried upon his Masters fist and fed with the brains of Birds and Partridges but after death they change their conditions for the Faulcon is flung upon the dunghil and the Hen served to the table of Kings As Jacob changed his hands placing his right hand upon his Grandchild who stood upon his left side and his left hand upon him who stood upon the right preferring the younger before the elder so God uses to change his hands after death and preferre the younger who are the poor and despised in this life For this Christ our Redeemer pronounces so many Woes against the rich of this world Woe be unto you rich who rejoyce in this world yee shall weep in the next Woe be unto you who are now filled you shall hunger hereafter Woe be unto them who have their heaven here it is to be feared a hell will succeed it Let us tremble at what was spoken unto the rich glutton Thou didst receive pleasure in this life and for this eternal evils succeeded thee after death changing hands with poor Lazarus who received evils in this life and after death enjoyed the pleasures of the other The rich man who wanted not abundance of precious wines in this life wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue in the next And Lazarus who here wanted the crums of bread that fell from his table was feasted with the Supper of eternal happiness The Prophet Jeremias writes that Nabuzardan carried a way the rich Captives unto Babylon Jer. 39. and left the poor in Jerusalem because the Devil carries away the slayes and lovers of riches unto Babylon which is the confusion of hell and leaves the poor in spirit in Jerusalem which is the vision of peace that they may there enjoy the clear sight of God The felicity of temporal goods blots out of our memories the greatness of the eternal it makes us forget God and the happiness of the other life it blindes those who possesse them busies them wholly in things of the Earth and gives them that means and opportunities for vices which the poor have not who either work or serve their Masters or pray Wherefore the enjoying of temporal goods is so dangerous 1 Ti. 6. that St. Paul calls Riches the Snare of the Devil And if in ail Snares there be falshood and danger how false and dangerous must be the Snares of Satan Laer. l. 9. c. 4. Even Diogenes was aware of this truth and therefore calls them a Vail of malice and perdition St. Hieron in Algas Ep. 84. St. Jerome says that anciently there were too notable Proverbs in prejudice of the Rich The first That he who was very rich could not be a good man The second That he who was rich had either been a bad man or was the heir of a bad man and admonishes us that the name of Rich in the holy Scripture is most commonly taken in an ill sense and to the contrary in a favourable that of the poore The truth is that the holy Scripture is full of Contumelies against the rich of this world and above all the Son of God who uttered most notable and feareful expressions against those who abound in temporal goods and therefore when he taught the Beatitudes he gave the first of them unto the Poor and in preaching the Woes he gave the first unto the Rich. And upon another occasion said it was impossible for the Rich to enter into the Kingdom of heaven And although he was willing to mitigate so hard a Sentence yet he said it was difficult and so difficult as might make the rich of the world to tremble for he assure us it is easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven But with God nothing is impossible From all that which hath been said may be gathered how worthy of contempt and hatred are all temporal goods since they deceive us not onely of our content in this life but of our felicity in the other and even of God himself What implacable hatred would a faithful and honest Spouse conceive against that Traitor who counterfeiting the shape and habit of her Husband should violate her Chastity how would she abhorre him when she knew the injury he had done her in a matter of that importance In the same manner are we betrayed by temporal felicity who appearing unto its in the likeness of the true happiness makes our hearts to adulterate with it and leave our lawful Spouse and true good indeed which is God For certainly there is no perfect felicity but in his service and complyance with his holy will in this life that we may enjoy him eternally in the next and therefore temporal goods which by their deceit cozen us and make us lose the eternal ought not to be loved and followed but hated as a thousand deaths THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. Of the greatness of things Eternal ALthough the littleness and baseness of things temporal be in themselves such as we have already seen yet unto him who shall consider the greatness and Majesty of the eternal whereof we now begin to treat they will appear much less and more contemptible For such is the greatness of that glory that St. Austin falls into these speeches Augus in Man If it were requisite every day to suffer torments or to remain in hell it self for some long time to the end we might behold Christ in his glory and enjoy the company of Saints were it much to suffer what is grievous and painful upon earth that we might be partakers of so great a happiness which speech of St. Austin is not to be taken as an exaggeration as neither that which is attributed to St. Jerome That it is a wonder that the stones under the feet of those who shall be damned convert not into roses as an anticipated solace of those evils which they are to suffer And that to the contrary those under the feet of them who are to be saved turn not into thorns to wound and chastise them for their sins since for so short troubles they are to receive unspeakable joyes This greatness of eternal goodness consists not onely in the eternity of their duration but in their intention also as being supreme and without limit in their excellency And therefore we ought not to think much at the suffering of a thousand years torments if for them we might obtain those blessings but for
Prosperous and the Lovers of the World who are those which for the most part people Hell The Prophet Baruch sayes Baruc. 3. Where are the Princes of the Nations which commanded over the beasts of the earth and sported with the birds of the air which store up silver and gold in which men put their trust and there is no end of their seeking who stamp and work silver who are sollicitous and their works are not found They are exterminated they have sunk down into hell Jac. 5. and others have risen in their places St. James sayes Weep you who are rich and lament the miseries which are to fall upon you St. Paul not onely threatens those who are rich but those who desire to be so saying Those who desire to be rich fall into the snare and temptation of the Devil 1 Tim. 6. and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires which drown them in death and perdition With this counterpoise then and hazard who would desire the wealth of the World since onely the desire of it is so poisonous Let those who dote upon the World hear St. Bernard Bernard in Medit. who sayes Tell me now Where are those lovers of the world who a little while agoe were here with us there is nothing remaining of them but dust and worms Mark diligently what they once were and what they now are They were men as thou now art they did eat drink laugh and pass away their times in mirth and jollity and in a moment of time sunk down into hell Here are their Bodies eaten by worms and their Souls condemned to eternal flames until united again they both shall sink together into everlasting fire that so those who were companions in sin may be also in torments and that one pain involve them who were consorts in the love of the same offence What did their vain glory profit them their short mirth their worldly power their fleshly pleasure their false riches their numerous families where is now their laughter their jests their boasting their arrogance how great shall be their sorrow when such misery shall succeed so many pleasures when from the height of humane glory they shall fall into those grievous torments and eternal ruine where according to what the Wise-man said the mighty shall be mightily punished If then those who most enjoy the World run the greatest hazard of being damned what can more induce us to the contempt of it than the consideration of so lamentable an end And what can more set forth the malice of temporal goods than to be the occasion of eternal evils If a curious built house be subject to some notable inconveniency no man will dwell in it if a couragious horse have some vitious quality no body will buy him and if a Chrystal cup have a crack it shall not be placed upon a Royal Cupboard yet the pleasures and goods of the World though subject to all those faults how are they coveted loved and sought after and in them our perdition Certainly if we should consider seriously the eternal evils which correspond to the short pleasures of this life we should have all humane felicity in horrour and trembling to see our selves in fortunes favour should flye from the world as from death The reverend and zealous Father Frier Jordan being desirous to convert a certain Cavalier to God and from the love of the world for his last remedy had recourse unto this consideration Seeing him a beautiful young man active and well disposed of body he said unto him At least Sir since God hath bellowed so comely a face and personage upon you think what pity it were they should be the food of eternal fire and burn without end The Gentleman reflected upon his advice and this consideration wrought so much with him that abhorring the world and quitting all his possessions and hopes he became poor in Christ and entred into Religion §. 2. Let us now come to the consideration of Eternal Evils that from thence we may despise all which is temporal be it good or bad The evils of Hell are truly evils and so purely such that they have no mixture of good In that place of unhappiness all is eternal sorrow and complaint and there is no room for comfort Aelian lib. 3. varia Hist c. 18. Aelian relates a History which being taken as a Parable may serve to illustrate what we are about to speak of He sayes in the utmost borders of the Meropes there is a cetrain place called Anostos which is as much to say from whence there is no return There was to be seen a great Precipice and a deep opening of the earth from whence issued two Rivers the one of Joy and the other of Sadness upon the brinks of which grew divers trees of so different fruits that those who eat of the one forgot all that might cause grief but those who eat of the other were so possessed with an unconsolable sadness that all was weeping and lamentations until they at last died with signs and shedding of tears What do those Rivers signifie but the one of them that whereof David speaks which with his current rejoyced the City of God the other that Flood of evil which enters the Prison of Hell and fills it with groans tears and despite without the least hope of comfort for there shall the door be eternally shut to all good or expectation of ease in so much as one drop of water was denied the rich Glutton from so merciful and pitiful a man as Abraham There shall not be the least good that may give ease nor shall there want a concourse of all evils which may add affliction There is no good to be found there where all goods are wanting neither can there be want of any evil where all evils whatsoever are to be found and by the want of all good and the collection of all evils every evil is augmented In the creation of the World God gave a praise to every nature saying It was good without farther exaggeration but when all were created and joyned together he said They were very good because the conjunction of many goods advances the good of each particular and in the same manner the conjunction of many evils makes all of them worse What shall Heaven then be where there is a concourse of all goods and no evils And what Hell where there are all evils and no good Certainly the one must be exceeding good and the other exceeding evil In signification of which the Lord shewed unto the Prophet Jeremias two little Baskets of Figs Jer. 24. in the one of which were excessively good ones and in the other excessively bad both in extremity He does not content himself in saying they were bad or very bad but sayes they were over-bad because they represented the miserable state of the Damned where is to be the sink of all evils without mixture of any good at all And for this
shall with great grief remember how often he might have gained Heaven and did it not but is now tumbled into Hell and shall say unto himself How many times might I have prayed and spent that time in play but now I pay for it How many times ought I to have fasted and left it to satisfie my greedy appetite How many times might I have given alms and spent it in sin How many times might I have pardoned my enemies and chose rather to be revenged How many times might I have frequented the Sacraments and forbore them because I would not quit the occasion of sinning There never wantted means of serving God but I never made use of it and am therefore now justly paid for all Behold accursed Caitiff that entertaining thy self in pleasures thou hast for toyes and fooleries lost Heaven If thou wouldest thou mightest have been a companion for Angels if thou wouldest thou mightest have been in eternal joy and thou hast lost all for the pleasure of a moment O accursed and wretched fool thy Redeemer courted thee with Heaven and thou despisedst him for a base trifle This was thy fault and now thou sufferest for it and since thou wouldest not be happy with God thou shalt now be eternally cursed by him and his Angels The Understanding shall torment it self with discourses of great bitterness discoursing of nothing but what may grieve it Aristotle shall not there take delight in his wisdom nor Seneca comfort himself with his Philosophy Galen shall find no remedy in his Physick nor the profoundest Scholar in his Divinity A certain Doctor of Paris appeared after death unto the Bishop of that City and gave him an account that he was damned The Bishop demanded of him if he had there any knowledge He answered That he knew nothing but onely three things The first that he was eternally damned The second that the Sentence past against him was irrevocable The third that for the vain pleasure of the world he was deprived of the vision of God And then he desired to know of the Bishop if there were any people in the world remaining The Bishop asking him the reason of that question he answered that within these few last dayes there have so many souls descended into Hell that me-thinks there should not any be left upon earth In this power of the Soul is engendered tho worm of conscience which is so often proposed unto us in holy Scripture as a most terrible torment and greater than that of fire Onely in one Sermon or rather in the Epilogue of that Sermon Christ our Redeemer three times menaces us with that Worm Marc. 9. which gnaws the consciences and tears in pieces the hearts of the Damned admonishing us as often That their worm shall never die nor their sire be quenched For as the worm which breeds in dead flesh or that which breeds in wood eats and gnaws that substance of which they are engendered so the Worm which is bred from sin is in perpetual enmity with it gnawing and devouring the heart of the sinner with raging desperate and now unprofitable grief still putting him in mind that by his own fault he lost that eternal glory which he might so easily have obtained and is now fallen into eternal torments from whence there is no redemption And certainly this resentment of the loss of Heaven shall more torment him than the fire of Hell Of an evil conscience even in this life St. Austin said Aug. in Psal 45. Quint. Declam 12. Senec. ep 97. that amongst all the tribulations of the Soul none was greater than that of a guilty conscience Even the Gentils knew this and therefore Quintilian exclaims O sad remembrance and knowledge more grievous than all torments And Seneca sayes that evil actions are whipt by the conscience of themselves that perpetual vexation and resentment brings great afflictions and torments upon the Actors that wickedness drinks up the greatest part of its own poison and is a punishment unto it self Certainly it were a great rigour if a Father should be forced to be present at the execution of his Son but more if he should be compelled to be the Hangman and yet greater if the Gallows should be placed before his own door so that he could neither go in or out without beholding that affront and contumely but far greater crueltie if they should make the guilty person to execute himself and that by cutting his body in pieces member after member or tearing off his flesh with his own teeth This is the cruelty and torment of an evil Conscience with which a sinner is racked and tortured amongst those eternal flames not being able to banish his faults from his memory nor their punishment from his thoughts The envy also which they shall bear towards those who have gained Heaven by as small matters as they have lost it shall much add to their grief Those who are hungry if they see others meaner than they feed at some splendid and plentiful Table and cannot be admitted themselves become more hungry so shall it fare with the damned who shall be more afflicted by beholding others sometimes less than themselves enjoy that eternal happiness which they through want of care are deprived of Esau though a Clown having understood that his Brother Jacob had obtained his Fathers Benediction cried out and roared like a Lion and consumed himself with resentment and horror What lamentations shall those of the damned be when they shall see that the Just have gained the Benediction of God not by any deceit or cozenage used by them but that they lost it through their own neglect Those who with opinion of merit earnestly aim at some vacant Dignity if at length they see themselves neglected and with shame put off their grief and indignation swells above measure In like manner I say shall it be with those damned wretches who will be far more afflicted by the consideration of those great goods and eternal felicities which they see themselves have lost and those to enjoy them whom they deemed far inferiour to them in merit Let us now therefore have remorse of conscience whilest we may kill the Worm lest it then bite us when it cannot die CAP. XI Of Eternal Death and the Punishment of Talion in the Damned AFter all this there shall not want in Hell the pains of Death which amongst humane punishments is the greatest That of Hell is a living Death and doth as far exceed this of earth as the substance doth a shadow The Death which men give together with death takes away the pain and sense of dying but the Eternal Death of sinners is with sense and by so much greater as it hath more of life recollecting within it self the worst of dying which is to perish and the most intolerable of life which is to suffer pain And therefore St. Bernard calls the pain of the damned a living Death and a dead Life and Pope Innocent the
by birth by divine inspiration became a Cistercian Monk He entred upon this course of life and continued with such great courage that he stuck not to challenge the Devil and bid him defiance The Enemy made his Cell the field of battail Here he assaulted him first with whips then upon a certain occasion gave him such blows that the blood burst out at his mouth and nose At the noise the Monks came in and finding him half dead they carried him to his Bed where he lay for the space of three dayes without giving any signes of life In which time in the company of an Angel he descended into a very obscure place where he saw a Man seated in a Chair of fire and certain Women very beautiful thrusting into his mouth burning torches drawing them out at other parts of his body which had been the instruments of his sins The Monk being astonished at this spectacle the Angel told him This miserable wretch was a very powerful man in the world and much given to Women and for this reason the Devils in shape of Women do torment him as thou seest Pasing a little farther he beheld another whom the infernal spirits were fleaing alive and having rubbed all his body over with salt they put him to roast upon a Gridiron This man said the Angel was a great Lord so cruel to his Vassals as the Devils are now to him A little farther they met with other persons of divers states and conditions which were tormented with several kinds of torments Many Religious both men and women whose lives had been contrary to their profession Talkers Censurers of other mens lives Slaves to their bellies defiled with lust and other such like vices To these the Ministers of vengeance in shape of most ugly fellows gave many blows in such sort that they dashed out their brains and made their eyes flye out of their heads because in their works they were blind and without judgement a chastisement Prov. 19. which the Wise-man appoints for such like persons Afterwards he lifted up his eyes and beheld one fastned to a horrible Wheel turning in such a dreadful manner that the Monk here was almost besides himself That thou seest is terrible said the Angel but far more terrible will be what thou shalt now see At the instant the Wheel began to run from alost down to the most profound depths with such horrid joggs and with such noise as if all the World Earth Heaven and all were breaking in pieces At this so sudden and direful accident all the Prisoners and Goalers of Hell brake out into great cries cursing and damning him that came in the Wheel This man said the Angel is Judas the Apostle who betrayed his Master and as long as he shall raign in glory which shall be world without end so long shall this miserable wretch lye thus tormented With these Representations God hath given us to understand the proportion his Justice observes in his chastisements to make us form some lively apprehension of the greatness of those pains they being indeed far greater than what ever we can conceive by all the rigour imaginable exhibited to the senses And in regard what enters by the senses prevails more with us for this reason he represents unto us the torments of the soul sutably to those so horrible to our senses as is to dash out the brains and make the brains flye out of the head For though it be true that this effect is not wrought indeed yet the torments inflicted upon the damned Souls are without companion greater then it would be for a man in this life to be so beaten about the head till his brains and eyes flew out Let us therefore fear the Divine justice and let us understand that in those parts of the body we offend God Almighty with greater delight we shall be sure to be punished with greater torment And here may be given this further instruction that as these and many such like stories related for more variety of discourse in this Treatise oblige us not to a full and absolute belief of them so they desire the favour of so much credit at least as is allowed to Livy Justine or other Chronicle-writers especially the Recorders of these being such as are no less grave and wise and acknowledge moreover a greater obligation of conscience not to wrong the World with lies or empty relations taken up upon the account of frivolous reports especially in matters of such concernment And as we think it not amiss to make use as occasion serves of profane Examples and Authorities in confirmation of what we usually either speak or write so without all doubt the same use of Sacred and Ecclesiastical occurrences may be no less available in such matters as these CAP. XII The fruit which may be drawn front the consideration of Eternal Evils ALl which hath been said of the pains in Hell is far short of that which really they are There is great difference betwixt the knowledge we have by relation and that which we learn by experience The Machabees knew that the Temple of the Lord was already prophaned deserted and destroyed They had heard of it and lamented it but when they saw with their eyes the Sanctuary lye desolate the Altar prophaned and the Gates burnt there was then no measure in their tears They tore their garments cast ashes upon their heads threw themselves upon the ground and their complaints ascended as high as Heaven If then the relation and discourse of the pains of Hell makes us tremble what shall be the sight and experience This notwithstanding the consideration of what hath been said may help us to form some conception of the terrour and horrour of that place of eternal sorrow Let us as St. Bernard sayes descend into Hell whilest we live that we may not descend thither when we are dead Let us draw some fruit from thence during our lives from whence nothing but torment is to be had after death The principal fruits which may be drawn from that consideration are these In the first place an ardent love and sincere gratitude towards our Creator that having so often deserved Hell he hath not yet suffered us to fall into it How many be there now in Hell who for their first mortal sin and onely for that one have been sent thither and we notwithstanding the innumerable sins which we have committed are yet spared What did God find in us that he should use a mercy towards us for so many sins which he did not afford to others for so few Why are we not then more grateful for so many benefits which we have no wayes deserved How grateful would a damned person be if God should free him from those flames wherein he is tormented and place him in the same condition we now are What a life would he lead what penance would he undergoe what austerity would not appear a pleasure unto him and how grateful
it not deserve And if in benefits the good will wherewith they are conferred is most to be esteemed When the benefit is infinite and the will of infinite love what shall we do If when that Traitor who murthered Henry the Fourth King of France was justly sentenced to those cruel torments wherein he died the first begotten Son of the dead King and Heir unto his Kingdom had cloathed himselt in the habit of the Murtherer and offered to be torn in pieces for him and to die that he might be freed from his torments and not only offered but actually performed it What love and thanks would the Prince deserve from that Caitiff O King of Glory and onely begotten Son of the eternal Father in as much as lay in us we were desirous to murther thy Father and to destroy his Divine essence and being and therefore were most worthy of death and eternal flames But thou wert not onely willing to die for us but effectually gavest thy blood and life with so inhumane torments for us and wert prepared to suffer more and greater for our good How shall we repay so great a love what thanks what gratitude for so immense a benefit Let us also consider What we our selves are for whom he suffered For he suffered not for himself or because it imported him he suffered not for another God nor for some new creature of a superiour nature to all those who now are not for a Seraphin who had faithfully served him for an eternity of years but for a miserable vile creature the lowest of all those which are capable of reason composed of dirt and his Enemy This should make us more grateful that God suffered so much for us who least deserved it To this may be added that he suffered thus much for us not that his suffering was necessary tor our redemption and freedom out of the slavery of sin but took upon him all these pains and torments onely to shew his love unto us and to oblige us to imitate him in the contempt of the world and all humane felicity Let us then behold our selves in this Mirrour and reform our lives Let us suffer with him who suffered so much for us Let us be thankful unto him who did us so much good and so much to his own cost Let it grieve our very souls that we have offended so good a God who suffered so many evils that we should not be evil Let us admire the Divine goodness who being the honour of Angels would for so vile a creature abase himself to the reproach of the Cross Let us love him who so truly loved us Let us put our trust in him who without asking gave us more than we durst desire Let us imitate this great example proposed unto us by the Eternal Father upon Mount Calvarie Let us compose our lives conformable unto the death of his Son our Saviour in all humility and contempt of temporal felicity that we may thereby attain the eternal that humbling our selves now he may exalt us hereafter that suffering here he may in his good time comfort us that tasting in this life what is bitter we may in the other be satiated with all sweetness and that weeping in time we may rejoyce for all eternity To which end our Saviour said unto the great Imitator of his Passion St. Francis Francis take those things that are bitter in lieu of those that are sweet if thou intendest to be happy And accordingly St. Austin Brethren Augus Ser. 11. ad fra Know that after the pleasures of this life are to follow eternal lamentations for no man can rejoyce both in this world and the next And therefore it is necessary that he who will possess the one should lose the other If thou desirest to rejoyce here know that thou shalt be banisht from thy Celestial Country but if thou shalt here weep thou shalt even at present be counted as a Citizen of Heaven And therefore our Lord said Blessed are those who weep for they shall be comforted And for this reason it is not known that our Saviour ever laught but it is certain that he often wept and for this reason chose a life of pains and troubles to shew us that that was the right way to joy and repose CAP. V. The Importance of the Eternal because God hath made himself a means for our obtaining it and hath left his most holy Body as a Pledge of it in the Blessed Sacrament ANother most potent motive to induce us to the estimation of what is Eternal and the contempt of what is Temporal is That God hath in the most holy and venerable Sacrament of his body and blood made himself a means that we might attain the one by despising the other Which holy Mystery was instituted That it might serve as a Pledge of those eternal goods and therefore the holy Church calls it a Pledge of future glory and That it might also serve us as a Viaticum whereby we might the better pass this temporal life without the superfluous use of those goods which are so dangerons unto us Our Lord bestowing this Divine bread upon us Christians as he did that of Manna heretofore unto the Hebrews And therefore as we gave a beginning unto this work with a presentation of that temporal Manna which served as a Viaticum unto the children of Israel in the wilderness so we will now finish it with the truth of this spiritual Manna of the blessed Sacrament which is a Pledge of the eternal goods and given as a Viaticum unto Christian people in the peregrination of this life Let a Christian therefore know how much it imports him to obtain the Eternal and with what earnestness his Creator desires it that having obliged us by those high endearments of his Incarnation and Passion in suffering for us so grievous and cruel a death would yet add such an excess of love as to leave himself unto us in the most blessed Sacrament as a means of our Salvation Who sees not here the infinite goodness of God since he who as God omnipotent is the beginning of all things and as the chief good of all goods and most perfect in himself is likewise their utmost end would yet for our sakes make himself a Medium which is common to the creatures and argues no perfection Our Lord glories in the Scripture that he is the beginning and end of all And with reason for this is worthy of his greatness and declares a perfection whereof only God is capable But to make himself a Medium and such a Medium as was to be used according to humane will and subject to the power and despose of man was such a complyance with our nature and such a desire of our salvation as cannot be imagined the Means of our salvation may be considered either as they are on Gods part or on Mans part for both God and Man work for mans salvation That God should serve himself
and increase Whereupon St. Austin calls it the foundation of the City of Babylon This Covetousness is seated in the affections of the soul as in its proper subject but is fed and receives nourishment from those exteriour things which we possess Wherefore wholly to extripate it two things are necessary not onely to quit this interiour thirst and gaping after riches but also that exteriour possession of them The first is to be done by the will and spirit but the second by an actual and effectual execution and forsaking them and it is for this that we are promised in this life a hundred-fold and in the next eternal felicity O how great a distance is there discovered betwixt things temporal and eternal since the onely hope of the eternal bestows more upon us even in this life then we can receive from the dominion and possession of all that is temporal Temporal goods by being enjoyed and possest are not so much as doubled but by being renounced for Christ are multiplyed a hundred-fold and hereafter conferr the Kingdom of Heaven Abundance of temporal goods as hath been already observed hinder and obstruct the pleasures and contents of this life for which we seek them and hereafter throw their possessors into hell flames so as they are not onely the occasion of eternal pain but by anticipation of many temporal inconveniences For I know not how it coms to pass the most rich are not the most contented nor yet the least necessitated It seems their goods diminish in their hands and are of less value amongst them than the poor at least ten is not worth to a rich man so much as one to a poor so as the poor who have renounced their goods for Christ finde them multiplyed a hundred-fold and the rich who forgetting their Redeemer employ themselves wholly in heaping up wealth find them as much diminished and of a hundred enjoy not one Besides the rich are so encumbered with cares dangers fears and perturbations that they know not the true contents of this life and yet run the hazard of eternal damnation in the other But to the contrary those who are poor in spirit and have forsaken their possessions for Christ are in this world filled with joy peace and comfort and in the next enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven O how happy are they who understand this and know how to change earth for heaven O how truly doth Christ call happy the poor in spirit who have left all for his sake and therefore enjoy a double happiness the one present and the other future here a hundred-fold for that which they possess not and hereafter the possession of life eternal O how happy is he who knows with the riches of the earth to purchase the treasure of glory in death and in life to receive them a hundred-fold doubled Cassian Collat. ult c. ult This according to Abbot Abraham is fully verified in religious persons who have quitted all they have upon earth to live in an estate of poverty who for one Father which they have left find a hundred in religion and for one Brother a hundred who embrace them with Christian charity for one possession a hundred possessions and for one house a hundred houses in the multitude of Monasteries founded for their Order so as there is no doubt but this reward is not onely doubled unto them a hundred-fold but multiplied to a farre greater proportion The same may be seen in other servants of God who serve him in voluntary poverty Beda de Nat. Sancti Benedic who by how much as Bede notes they have served God with more affection in renouncing their temporal goods by so much hath God stirred up the affections and liberalities of others to supply and assist them in all their wants So as they are served with the goods of all and as the Apostle sayes having nothing possess all But although this recompence should fail us yet one a hundred-fold greater then this will not fail us which is that noted by St. Jerome Lib. 3. in Math. He who for our Saviours sake leaves carnal things shall receive spirituall which in comparison and value are as if some small number were compared with a hundred We seek the goods of the earth for the ease and content of life But if this may better and with more advantage be acquired by the contempt and leaving them what can we desire more Certainly he who quits all for Christ enjoyes a hundred times more content and pleasure then he who flows in the greatest riches and abundance for according to what hath been said the goods of this life are tedious and troublesome even to life it self so the freedom from those cares and incommodities which accompany them eases the heart and makes our life more sweet and pleasant Whereupon St. Chrysostome notes That as the Children in the middest of the fiery furnace in Babylon were refresht by a cool wind and pleasant dew to those who are in poverty which the holy Scripture calls a furnace are recreated by a gentle aire from heaven and the dew of the holy Spirit and that in so high a manner as St. Bernard speaking of the Monks of Claraval sayes That they drew from their Poverty Fasts and austere Penances such joy and spiritual comfort that they were jealous and afraid least God had given them their whole and compleat reward in this world and it seemed unto them that having their heaven in this life they should lose it in that to come Whereupon it was necessary for St. Bernard to prove unto them in one of his Sermons That he did injure the grace of the holy Spirit who placed grief in what it communicated Certainly the Servants of God are highly rewarded since they receive even in this life such celestial joyes for those temporal trifles which they have quitted If one for a certain weight of Copper were to receive the like in Gold Cassian Sup. I believe he would think he had made a good bargain The like exchange they make who receive those spiritual joyes for the pleasures of the earth In Histor Cistere This is fully verified in that which happened unto Arnulphus the Cistercian who being rich noble and abounding with all which the world esteems moved by the Sermons of St. Bernard became a Monk in the Monastery of Claraval where after a holy life led in much rigour and austerity he at last became very infirm and through the great grief and pains which he suffered would often fall into faintings and sounding trances but still when he recovered from his fits would cry out It is true it is true which thou hast said O blessed Jesus And to some present who thought the extremity of pain did make him rave he would say Brethren I have spoken this in my right judgement and senses for that which our Lord promised in the Gospel That he who for his sake should leave Father Mother or Goods
bis life shall lose it and he who hates it in this world shall gain it for ever Hence it comes that we are now no more to look upon our selves as upon a thing of our own but onely Gods depending both in our spiritual and corporal being from that infinite Ocean of being and perfection Hence the Soul finding it self now free and unfetter'd flyes unto God with all its forces and affections not finding any thing to love and please it but in him in whom the beauty and perfections of all creatures are contained with infinite advantages When one hath once arrived unto this estate how dissonant and various soever his works be the end which he pretends is still the same and he ever obtains what he pretends if shutting his eyes to all creatures as if they were not he looks at nothing but God and how to please his Divine goodness and that onely for it self It may be that looking at the particular ends of each work our actions may be in several conditions sometimes they are in beginning sometimes in the middest sometimes in the end and oftentimes by impediments and cross accidents which happen they acquire not what they aim at but look upon the intention of him who works and they are still in their end For in what condition soever the work be he who does it with this intention onely to please God is ever in his end which no bad success or contradiction can hinder According to this which hath been said it is a great matter by Divine light to have arrived at this knowledge That all goods and gifts descend from above and that there is an infinite power goodness wisdom mercy and beauty from whence these properties which are here below participated by the creatures with such limitation are derived It is a great matter to have discovered the Sun by his rayes and guiding our selves by the stream to have arrived at the Fountains head or to have found the Centre where the multiplicity of created perfections meet and unite in one There our love shall rest as having nothing further to seek And this is to love God with all the heart all the soul all the mindâ— and all the powers And as those who arrive at this happy state have no other care no other thought than to doe the will of God here upon earth with the same perfection it is done in heaven So they have no other desires than by leaving earth to enter heaven there by sulfilling wholly the Divine will to supply what was defective upon earth Nothing detains them here but the will of God they have nothing begun which is not ended they are ever prepared all their business is dispatched like those servants who are alwayes expecting their Lord and still ready to open the door when he shall call Let us then prepare our selves by withdrawing our love from all which is temporal and created and placing it upon our Creator who is eternal let us love him not with a delicate and an effeminate love but with a strong and manly affection such a one as will support any weight overcome any difficulty and despise any interest rather than be separated from our beloved break his Laws or offend him though never so lightly Let this Love be strong as death that it may look death in the face and not flye from it which when it suffers it conquers Let thy fire be so enkindled that if whole rivers of tribulations fall upon it they may be but like drops of water falling upon a forge which the flame drinks up and consumes and is not quenched but quickned by them Be above thy self and above all that is below And if the world offer thee all it is Mistress of to despoil thee of this love tread it under thy feet and despise it as nothing To this love it belongs To accommodate ones self to poverty Not to repine at hunger nakedness cold or heat who as companions goe along with it To suffer injuries meekly To bear sickness and infirmities patiently Not to be dismayed in persecutions To endure temptations with longanimity To bear the burthens of our neighbours chearfully Not to be tired with their thwart conditions Not to be angry at their neglects nor overcome by their ingratitude In spiritual drynesses not to leave our ordinary devotions and in consolations and spiritual gusts not to forbear our obligations Finally that we may say with St. Paul Rom. 8. Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ tribulation or distress or famine or nakedness or danger or persecution or the sword I am sure that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers neither things present nor things to come neither might nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. FINIS
comes it then that a Dwarf or Pigmey in time affrights us and an armed Giant in eternity makes us not tremble how is it that eternal hell moves us not and yet we fear a temporal pain how is it we do not penance for our sins why have we not patience in our afflictions why suffer we not all that which can be suffered in this life rather than to suffer one onely torment in eternity The pains of this valley of tears being they are to have an end are not to be feared in comparison of those which shall never have it how contentedly then ought we to suffer here a little and for a short time that we may be freed from suffering much hereafter and for ever What we have considered in evils and afflictions the same is to be considered in goods and blessings If one were to enjoy all the pleasures of the senses for a thousand miriads of years but were to pass no further we ought to change them all for one onely pleasure that would last for ever Why then exchange we not one perishing pleasure of the earth which is to last but for a moment for all those immense joyes which we are to possess in Heaven for a world without end All the temporal goods of the world might well be quitted for the securing of only one that were eternal how is it then that we secure not all the eternal by forbearing now and then one which is temporal It would infinitely exceed the Dominion of the whole world so long as the world shall last to be Lord but of one little Cottage for eternity time holds no comparison with it all that is temporal how great soever being to be esteemed vile and base and all that is eternal how small soever high and precious And that we may exaggerate this consideration as much as possible the very being of God himself if it were but for a time might be quitted for some other infinitely less excellent which were eternal And shall then the covetous man satisfie himself with those poor treasures which death may quit him of to morrow and perhaps the Theef to day despising for them the eternal treasure of Heaven For certain if God should promise as to enjoy the pleasure of one onely sense for ever in the next life we ought for it to part with all the pleasures we have in this how huge a folly is it then that promising all those immense joyes of Heaven we will not for all them together part with some of those poor ones on earth The second way by which Eternity unto whatsoever it is joyned makes the good infinitely better and the bad infinitely worse is because it collects it self wholly into every instant so that in every instant it makes us sensible of all that which it is to contain in its whole duration and being to endure for an infinity it amasses as it were into every instant a whole infinity of pleasure or pain every instant being sensible both of what it contains at present what is past and what it shall contain in future So as a Doctor sayes Les de perfec divi lib. 4. c. 3. In Eternity all the good a thing can contain successively in an infinite time is recollected into one instant and made perceptible and enjoyable all at once As if all the pleasures a most delicious Banquet could afford successively by parts and that in an infinite time should be resumed all at once and all that delight should be conferred joyntly and together for eternity certainly this would make it infinitely better and of more esteem The same thing Eternity causes in evils and pains recollecting them in a certain manner into one and making them sensible all at once and although they be not all really and actually together yet it causes them to be apprehended altogether and so produces in the Soul a grief infinite and without limit Those then are truly evils which are totally and every way evils both in extension their duration having no end and in intension their being and essence having no limit or measure What afflicted person who considers this can be impatient since all the griefs of this life have both an end and limit The greatest temporal evils are but as biting of gnats in respect of the least of those which are eternal and therefore that we may escape all the eternal it is not much to suffer one temporal Let us tremble at the consideration of those two lances of Eternity those two infinities whose wounds are mortal and pierce the damned from side to side those two unsupportable rocks which overwhelm and crush whom they fall upon into pieces All that we suffer here is to be laughed at a fillip with a finger a trifle in respect of the eternal which embraces all times and with the evils of them all falls every instant upon the head of the damned §. 2. Besides what hath been already said Goods and Evils eternal have this condition that they are not onely qualified and augmented by the future but also by what is past although temporal so as the blessed Souls in Heaven not only enjoy the glory which they have in present and that which is to come but also what is past even unto those real and true goods of this life to wit their vertues and good works with the memory of which they recreate and congratulate themselves for all eternity in so much as all goods past present and to come concur in one to fill up the measure of their joy and the goods of all times even of those of this life are amassed and heaped up in their felicity How different from this are temporal goods since even those which we possess in present suffer not themselves to be entirely enjoyed here is no good which is not alloyed by some want danger or imperfection And if for the present they afford so little content much less do they for the future since the security of what we possess is so uncertain that the fear of losing it often disseasons the present gust The same fear also robbs our remembrance of the comfort of what is past since we fear to lose that most which we have formerly taken most pleasure in enjoying On all sides then the eternal goods are much more excellent unto which we ought to aspire and strive to purchase them even at the cost of all which is temporal and in this life as much as may be to imitate the same eternity the which is to be done by the practice of those three Vertues which St. Bernard recommends unto us in these words Serm. 1. in Festo Om. Sact. With Poverty of spirit with Meekness and Contrition of heart is renewed in the Soul a similitude and image of that Eternity which embraces all times For with poverty of spirit we merit the future with meekness we possess the present and with the tears of repentance recover what is past And truely he
as far distant from the immensity of God as the smallest grain of sand so a thousand years are as far short of Eternity as the twinckling of an eye Wherefore Boëtius says that there is more similitude betwixt a moment of time and ten thousand years than betwixt ten thousand years and Eternity There is no expression which can sufficiently set forth the greatness of what is Eternal nor which can explicate the brevity of time and littleness of what is Temporal Wherefore David Psal 76. when he considered what had passed since God created the world until his time calls all those Ages which were already past by the name of dayes saying I thought upon the days of old And it is not much that he should call Ages dayes when in another place he sayes a thousand years in the presence of God are but as yesterday 1. Joan. 2. And St. John expresses it yet more fully when he calls all those years which were to pass betwixt his time and the end of the world whereof 1600 are already run but an hour But David when he set himself seriously to think upon Eternity which in it self is but one and as the Saints speak one day he calls it Eternal years augmenting as much as he could the conception of Eternity and diminishing that of time For the same reason the Prophet Daniel setting forth the Glory of Apostolical persons speaks in the plural number That they shall shine like Stars for perpetual Eternities it seeming unto him that the ordinary Number did not suffice to declare what Eternity was and therefore explicates it by the number of many Eternities adding for more amplification the Epithete of perpetual Dan. 12. But endeavour we never so much we declare nothing of it Let the Prophets turn themselves wholly into tongues let them call it perpetual Eternities let them call it Eternity of Eternities let them call it many dayes let them call it Ages of Ages all falls short to explicate the infinite duration which it hath Wherefore Eliu speaking of God Job 36. says his years were inestimable because no years imaginable could compare with his Eternity Betwixt a minute and 100000 years there is proportion but betwixt 100000 years and Eternity none at all Well may a quarter of an hour be compared unto a million of years but a million of years with Eternity holds no comparison in respect of which all time vanishes and disappears neither is a million of years more than a moment since neither have proportion with Eternity but in respect of it are both equal or to say better are both nothing Eccl. 11. Wherefore the Wise man said That if a man had lived many years and those all in pleasure yet ought he to remember the time of darkness and the many dayes for so he calls Eternity the which when they shall come all that is past will be found to be vanity If Cain had lived and enjoyed all the felicities of the Earth even until this day and at this instant died what should he now possess of all his delights What would remain unto him of all his dayes past Certainly no more than remained unto his brother Abel whom he murdred more than 5500 years ago equally had both their dayes disappeared and Cain had no more left of his sports and pleasures so fully and for so long a time enjoyed than Abel of his short life but more to suffer in that time of darkness and the many dayes of Eternity Eccl. 11. For if as Ecclesiasticus saith The evils of one hour make many pleasures to be forgotten and the moment wherein a man dyes bereaves him of all he did in life either for delight or appetite why shall not then the torments of Hell make him forget all the pleasures of the earth and the Eternity of evils strip him of a few and momentary pastimes If with the grief of one hour the pleasures of many years are forgotten why shall not the pleasure of one moment for which thou fallest into Hell be forgotten with the malice of many years And if the instant of thy bodily death deprive thee of all thy vain contents and entertainments past what shall be done by the eternal death of thy Soul In that instant wherein Heliogabolus dyed what continued with him of all his sports and delights Nothing At this present after so many years measured in the Eternity of Hell what now remains with him but torments upon torments griefs upon griefs pains upon pains evils upon evils and a perpetual Woe is me which shall last as long as God is God The moment wherein we dye as touching the things of this life makes all men equal He who lived long and he who died shortly he who enjoyed much and he who had but little he who was glutted with all sorts of delights and he who was fed with the bread of sorrow and vexed with all sorts of griefs and misfortunes all are now the same all are ended in death the one is not sensible of his pleasure nor the other grieved with his labours After the expiration of an hundred years in a most rigid life what felt St. Romualdus of all his austerities What the most penitent Simeon Stylites after fourscore years of a prodigious penance wherein he quitted not his hair-shirt by day or night What felt he at his death of his continual fasts and long prayers Certainly of pain no more than if he had spent all that long time in the wanton pleasures of Sardanapalus Of griefs he found nothing but of joy and glory he now does and ever shall in abundance What felt St. Clement of Ancira of his twenty eight years torments suffered by the furious rage and madness of Tyrants Certainly of Pain no more then if during that time he had enjoyed all the delights of the world but of Glory an Eternity For if the malice of one hour make the contents of an hundred years to be forgotten much more will the happiness of an Eternity blot out the remembrance of 28 years sufferance O prodigious moment of death which gives an end unto all that is Temporal which transmits and changes all things which concludes the gusts and pleasures of sinners and begins their torments which ends the labours and austerities of Saints and begins their Glory and joyes Eternal Let therefore a Christian seriously consider that the pleasures by which he sins and the mortifications by which he satisfies are equally to have an end and that the torments which he deserves by the one and the joyes which he merits by the other are equally never to have an end and let him then make election of that which shall be best for him Let him see if it be not better to work himself an eternal Crown of glory out of the sleight and momentary sufferings of this life And let not the length of life affright him for there is nothing long in respect of Eternity It was
quality of temporal life that having in it self no truth or reality yet it paints and sets forth that false ware which it hath with much beauty and lustre to our perdition Wherefore Aeschylus said That it was not onely a shadow of life but also a shadow of smoak which blindes and smuts and is a thing so inconstant and vain which is also suitable to that of David when he said That his dayes vanished like smoak and grew towards an end like a shadow joyning together the shadow and smoak two things the most vain of any in the world Even Pindarus exaggerates it yet more saying That it was no shadow but the dream of a shadow and what is it else but to dream to perswade ones self that this life is long and hope for prosperity in it This certainly is the greatest deceit which is put upon man and the chief cause of all his evils that he suffers not himself to be perswaded what life is and the shortness of it For as the Shadow is nothing less than the Statua whole Shadow it is yet appears like it and is the figure of it so although this life be most short and nothing less than eternity yet it looks like it and unto us it seems as if it were eternal This is a most hurtful and costly cosenage For if life should appear what it is and not lie unto us we should not put our trust in it nor make such esteem of those goods and blessings which it promises which in themselves are so deceitful and uncertain but being as it is an image and a shadow all which it proposes unto us is but feigned and dissembled promising great happiness when it is onely full of misery and calamity although disguis'd in such manner as we know them not How contented goes the Bride unto her Marriage Bed and yet within a short time laments her unfortunate choice with what gust does the ambitious man enter upon his office which is but a Seminary of future sorrow and vexation what joy doe those riches bring along with them which in the end are to be the death of the possessor All is deceit dissimulation falshood and prejudice and yet we like frantick people are not sensible of our mischiefs Unto how many infirmities is the body of a man exposed with what imaginations is he afflicted and deceived with how many labours and toyls does he daily wrestle with what thoughts and apprehensions doth he torment himself what dangers of soul and body doth he run into what fopperies is he forced to behold what injuries to suffer what necessities and afflictions Nay such is our whole life that it seemed unto St. Bernard little less evil than that of hell Sermo de ascen Domini but onely for the hope we have of heaven Our Infancy is full of ignorance and fears our Youth of sins our Age of sorrow and our whole life of dangers There is none content with his condition but he who will die whilst he lives in so much as life cannot be good unless it must resemble death Finally as the Shadow is in such manner an image as it represents all things to the contrary so as he who shall place himself betwixt the Statua and the Shadow shall perceive that that which is upon the right hand of the Statua the Shadow represents upon the left and what it has upon the left the Shadow hath upon the right so Time is in such manner the Image of Eternity as it has all its properties to the contrary Eternity hath no end but Life and Time have a speedy one Eternity hath no change but nothing is more mutable than Time Eternity suffers no comparison by reason of its infinite greatness but Life and all the goods of it are short and little and derived from the earth which is but a point THE SECOND BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. Of the End of Temporal Life LEt us now consider how contrary unto the conditions of Eternity are those which accompany this our miserable life Let us begin with the first Which is to be limited and subject to an end In the which two things are to be considered The End and the Manner of it which perhaps is of more misery than the end it self And truly although the end of life should fall under humane election and that it were in the power of Man to make choice how many years he would continue in life and after what manner he would then leave it and that it might conclude some other way than by death or sickness yet the consideration that it and all things temporal were to perish and at last to have an end were sufficient to make us despise it and that very thought would drown all the pleasures and contents which it could afford us For as all things are of greater or lesser esteem according to the length and shortness of their duration so life being to end be it in what manner soever is much to be disvalued A fair Vessel of Chrystal if it were as consistent and durable as Gold were more precious than Gold it self but being frail and subject to break it loses its estimation and although of it self it might last long yet being capable by some careless mischance of being broken it becomes of much less value In the same manner our life which is much more frail than glass being subject to perish by a thousand accidents and though none of them should happen could not long continue since it consumes it self must needs together with those temporal goods which attend it be most contemptible But considering that the ending of it is by the way of death infirmities and misfortunes which are the Harbingers and prepare the way for death it is to be admired that Man who knows he is to die makes account of temporal felicity seeing the misery in which the prosperity of this world and the Majesty of the greatest Monarchs are at last to finish Wherein ended King Antiochus Lord of so many Provinces 1 Machab 6. 2 Machab 9. but in a disconsolate and mortal Melancholy in a perpetual waking which with want of sleep bereft him of his judgment in a grievous torture in his belly which forced him to void his very entrails in a perpetual pain in his bones that he was not able to move And he who seemed to command the waves of the Sea and that the highest mountains of the Earth hung upon his finger ends whose Majesty was once lifted up above all humane power could not then preserve himself in his own Kingdom nor move one pace from the place where they layd him he who cloathed himself in soft Silks and pure Linnens he whose Garments were more fragrant than the most precious spices cast now such a smell from his putrified members that none could endure his presence and being yet alive his whole body swarmed with loathsome vermin his flesh dropped away by
us Petrus Damianus in Gomor c. 23. saying If the subtle Enemy shall set before thee the frail beauty of the flesh send thy thoughts presently unto she Sepulcher of the Dead and let them there see what they can finde agreeable to the touch or pleasing to the sight Consider that poison which now stinks intollerably that corruption which engenders and feeds worms That dust and dry ashes was once soft and lively flesh and in its youth was subject to the like passions as thou art Consider those rigid nerves those naked teeth the disjoynted disposition of the bones and articles and that horrible dissipation of the whole Body and by this means the Monster of this deformed and confused figure will pluck from thy heart all deceits and illusions This from St. Peter Damian All this is certainly to happen unto thy self Wherefore doest thou not amend thy evil conditions this is to be thy end unto this therefore direct thy life and actions From hence spring all the errors of men that they forget the end of their lives which they ought to have still before their eyes and by it to order themselves for the complyance with their obligations With reason had the Brachmans their Sepulchers placed still open before their doors that by the memory of death they might learn to live In this sense is that Axiome of Plato most true when he sayes That Wisdom is the Meditation of Death because this wholesome thought of Death undeceives us in the vanities of the world and gives us force and vigour to better our lives Johannes Brom. in Sum. verb. Poenit num 12. Some Authors write of a certain Confessarius who when all his perswasions could not prevail with his penitent to do penance for his sins contented himself with this promise that he would suffer one of his Servants every night when he went to bed to sound these words in his ear Think that thou art to dye who having often heard this admonition and and profoundly considered it with himself he at last returned unto his Confessor well disposed to admit of such penance as should be enjoyned him The same thing happened to another who having confessed to to the Pope very hainous crimes said that he could not fast nor wear hair-shirts nor admit of any other kinds of austerity His Holiness having commended the matter to God gave him a Ring with this Poesie Memento mâ—ri Remember thou art to dye charging him that as often as he looked upon the Ring he should read those words and call death to mind Few hours after the memory hereof caused such a change in his heart that he offered to fulfil what ever penance his Holiness should please to impose upon him For this reason it seems God commanded the Prophet Jeremias that he should goe into the house of the Potter and that he should there hear his words Well might the Lord have sent his Prophet into some place more decent to receive his sacred words then where so many men were daily imployed in dirt and clay but here was the particular mysterie whereby we are given to understand that the presence of Sepulchers wherein is preserved as in the house of a Potter the clay of humane nature it was a place most proper for God to speak unto us that the memory of death might more deeply imprint his words in our hearts For this very reason the Devil strives with all his power and cunning to obstruct in us the memory of death For what other cause can be assigned why the meer suspicion of some loss or notable damage should bereave us of our sleep and that the certainty of death which of things terrible is most terrible should never trouble us CAP. II. Remarkable Conditions of the end of Temporal Life BEsides the misery wherein all the felicity of this world is to determine the end of our life hath other most remarkable conditions very worthy to be considered and by which we may perceive the goods of it to be most contemptible We will now principally speak of three First that death is most infallible certain and no way to be avoided The second that the time is most incertain because we know neitheâ— when nor how it will happen The third that it is buâ— only one and but once to be experienced so that wâ— cannot by a second death correct the errors of the firsâ— Concerning the certainty and infallibility of death it imports us much to perswade our selves of it for as it is infallible that the other life shall be without end so it is as certain that this shall have it And as the Damned are in despair to find an end in their torments so are we practically to despair that the pleasures and contents of this world are to endure for ever God hath not made a Law more inviolable than that of death For having often dispensed in other Laws and by his omnipotent power and pleasure violated as I may say divers times the rights of Nature he neither hath nor will dispense with the Law of death but hath rather dispensed with other Laws that this should stand in force and therefore hath not onely executed the sentence of death upon those who in rigour ought to dye but upon those unto whom it was no wise due In the conception of Christ our Saviour those establisht Lawes of Nature that men were not to be born but by propagation from men and breach of the Mothers integrity were dispensed with God that his Lawes should have no force in Christ working two most stupendious Miracles and infringing the Lawes of Nature that his Son might be born of a Virgin Mother was so far from exempting him from the Law of death that death not belonging to him as being Lord of the Law and wanting all sin even original by which was contracted death nay immortality and the four gifts of glory being due unto his most Holy Body as resulting from the clear vision of the Divine essence which his Soul ever enjoyed yet all this notwithstanding God would not comply with this right of Nature but rather miraculously suspended by his omnipotent Arm those gifts of glory from his Body that he might become subject unto death in so much as God observes this Law of Death with such rigour that doing Miracles that the Law of Nature should not be kept in other things he works Miracles that the Law of Death should be observed even by his own Son who deserved it not and unto whom it was in no sort due And now that the Son of God had taken upon him the redemption of Mankind for whom out of his most infinite charity it was convenient for him to dye the death of the Cross which reason failing in his most holy Mother unto whom death was not likewise due from Original sin she being priviledged according to the opinion of most Universities as well in that as many other things by her blessed Son yet would
means to escape from death which he perceived was now ready to seise upon him Or that he would mitigate those great pains which he then suffered but for the space of one short hour Or that after he was departed this life he would procure him a good lodging though but for one night and no longer The Marquess answered that those were onely in the power of God and wished him to demand things feasible here upon earth and he would not fail to serve him Unto whom the sick Souldier replied I now too late perceive all my labour and travail to be lost and all the services which I have done you in the whole course of my life to be vain and fruitless and turning himself unto those who were present spake unto them with much feeling and tears in his eyes My Bretheren behold how vainly I have spent my time being so precious a jewel in the serving of this Master obeying his Commands with much care and great danger of my Soul which at this instant is the grief I am most sensible of See how small is his power since in all these pains which afflict me he is not able to give me ease for one hours space Wherefore I admonish you that you open your eyes in time and let my error be a warning unto you that you preserve your selves from so notable a danger and that you endeavour in this world to serve such a Lord as may not onely free you from these present perplexities and preserve you from future evils but may be able to crown you with glory in another life And if the Lord by the intercession of your prayers shall be pleased to restore my health I promise hereafter not to imploy my self in the service of so poor and impotent a Master who is not able to reward me but my whole endeavour shall be to serve him who hath power to protect me and the whole world by his Divine vertue With this great repentance he dyed leaving us an example to benefit our selves by that time which God bestows upon us here for the obtaining of eternal reward § 2. Let us now come unto the second condition which is the Uncertainty of time in the Circumstances For as it is most certain that we are to dye so it is most uncertain How we are to dye and as there is nothing more known than that death is to seise upon all so there is nothing less understood than When and in What manner Who knows whether he is to dye in his old age or in his youth if by sickness or struck by a Thunder-bolt if by grief or stabbed by Poniards if suddenly or slowly if in a City or in a Wilderness if a year hence or to day the doors of death are ever open and the enemy continually lies in ambush and when we least think of him will assault us How can a man be careless to provide for a danger which ever threatens him Let us see with what art men keep their temporal things even at such time as they run no hazard The Shepheards guard their Flocks with watchful Dogs although they believe the Wolf to be far off onely because he may come And walled Towers are kept by Garrisons in time of peace because an enemy either has or may approach them But when are we secure of death when can we say that now it will not come why do we not then provide our selves against so apparent danger In frontier Towns the Centinels watch day and night although no Enemy appears nor any assault is feared why do we not alwayes watch since we are never secure from the assaults of death He who suspected that Theeves were to enter his house would wake all night because they should at no hour find him unprovided It being then not a suspicion but an apparent certainty that death will come and we know not when why do we not alwayes watch We are in a continual danger and therefore ought to be continually prepared It is good ever to have our Accompts made with God since we know not but he may call us in such haste as we shall have no time to perfect them It is good to play a sure game and be ever in the grace of God Who would not tremble to hang over some vast precipice wherein if he fell he were certain to be dashed in a thousand pieces and that by so weak a supporter as a thread This or in truth much greater is the danger of him who is in mortal sin who hangs over hell by the thread of life a twist so delicate that not a knife but the wind and the least fit of sickness breaks it Wonderful is the danger wherein he stands who continues to the space of one Ave Maria in mortal sin Death hath time enough to shoot his arrow in the speaking a word the twinkling of an eye suffices Who can laugh and be pleased whilest he stands naked and disarmed in the middest of his Enemies Amongst as many Enemies is man as there are wayes to death which are innumerable The breaking of a vein in the body The bursting of an Imposthume in the entrails A vapour which flyes up to the head A passion which oppresses the heart A tyle which falls from a house A piercing air which enters by some narrow cranny Vn yerro de cuenta A hundred thousand other occasions open the doors unto death and are his Ministers It is not then safe for man to be disarmed and naked of the grace of God in the middest of so many adversaries and dangers of death which hourly threaten him We issue from the wombs of our Mothers as condemned persons out of prison and walk towards execution for the guilt which we have contracted by Original sin Who being led to execution would entertain himself by the way with vain conceipts and frivolous jests we are all condemned persons who go to the Gallows though by different wayes which we our selves know not Some the straight way and some-by by-paths but are all sure to meet in death Who knows whether he goe the direct way or windes about by turns whether he shall arrive there soon or stay later all that we know is that we are upon the way and are not far from thence We ought therefore still to be prepared and free from the distracting pleasures of this life for fear we fall suddenly and at unawares upon it This danger of sudden death is sufficient to make us distaste all the delights of the earth Dionysius King of Sicily that he might undeceive a young Philosopher who therefore held him to enjoy the chief felicity because he wanted nothing of his pleasure caused him one day to be placed at a Royal Table and served with all variety of splendid entertainments but over the place where he was seated caused secretly a sharp-pointed Sword to be hung directly over his head sustained only by a horses hair This danger was sufficient to
make the poor Philosopher to forbear his dinner and not to relish one morsel of the Feast with pleasure Thou then who art no more secure of thy life than he how canst thou delight in the pleasures of the world he who every moment expects death ought no moment to delight in life This onely consideration of death according to Ricardus was sufficient to make us distaste all the pleasures of the earth A great danger or fear suffices to take away the sense of lesser joyes and what greater danger then that of Eternity Death is therefore uncertain that thou shouldest be ever certain to despise this life and dispose thy self for the other Thou art every hour in danger of death to the end that thou shouldest be every hour prepared to leave life What is death but the way unto eternity A great journey thou hast to make wherefore doest thou not provide in time and the rather because thou knowest not how soon thou mayest be forced to depart The People of God because they knew not when they were to march were for forty years which they remained in the Wilderness ever in a readiness Be thou then ever in a readiness since thou mayst perhaps depart to day Consider there is much to do in dying prepare thy self whilest thou hast time and do it well For this many years were necessary wherefore since thou knowest not whether thou shalt have one day allowed thee why doest thou not this day begin to dispose thy self If when thou makest a short journey and hast furnished and provided thy self of all things fitting yet thou commonly findest something to be forgotten how comes it to pass that for so long a journey as is the Region of Eternity thou thinkest thy self sufficiently provided when thou hast scarce begun to think of it Who is there who does not desire to have served God faithfully two years before death should take him if then thou art not secure of one why doest thou not begin Trust not in thy health or youth for death steals treacherously upon us when we least look for it for according to the saying of Christ our Redeemer it will come in an hour when it is not thought on And the Apostle said the day of the Lord would come like a theef in the night when none were aware of it and when the Master of the house was in a profound sleep Promise not thy self to morrow for thou knowest not whether death will come to night The day before the Children of Israel went forth of Egypt how many of that Kingdom young Lords and Princes of Families promised themselves to doe great matters the next day or perhaps within a year after yet none of them lived to see the morning Wisely did Messodamus who as Guido Bituricensis writes when one invited him forth the next day to dinner answered My friend why doest thou summon me for to morrow since it is many years that I durst not promise any thing for the day following every hour I look for death there is no trust to be given to strength of Body youthful years much riches or humane hopes Hear what God sayes to the Prophet Amos Amos 8. In that day the Sun shall set at midday and I will over-cast the earth with darkness in the day of light What is the setting of the Sun at midday but when men think they are in the middest of their life in the flower of their age when they hope to live many years to possess great wealth to marry rich wives to shine in the world then death comes and over-shadows the brightness of their day with a cloud of sorrow as it happened in the Story related by Alexander Faya Alex. Faya To. 2. Ladislaus King of Hungary and Bohemia sent a most solemn Embassage unto Charles King of France for the conducting home of that Kings Daughter who was espoused unto the Prince his Son The chief Embassador elected for this journey was Vdabricas Bishop of Passaw for whose Attendants were selected 200 principal men of Hungary 200 of Bohemia and other 200 of Austria all persons of eminent Birth and Nobility so richly clad and in so brave an Equipage that they appeared as so many Princes To these the Bishop added an hundred Gentlemen chosen out of his own Subjects so that they passed through France 700 Gentlemen in company most richly accoutred and for the greater Pomp and Magnificence of the Embassage there went along with them 400 beautiful Ladies in sumptuous habits and adorned with most costly jewels the Coaches which carried them were studded with gold and enchased with stones of value Besides all this were many Gifts and rich Garments of inestimable price which they brought along with them for Presents But the very day that this glorious Embassage entred Paris before they came at the place appointed for their entertainment a Curriere arrived with the news of the death of the espoused Prince Such was the grief that struck the heart of the French King with so unexpected a news as he could neither give an answer to the Embassage nor speak with the Embassadour or those who accompanied him and so they departed most sorrowful from Paris and every one returned unto his own home In this manner God knows by the means of death to fill the earth with darkness and sorrow in the day of greatest brightness as he spake by his Prophet Since then thou knowest not when thou art to dye think thou must dye to day and be ever prepared for that which may ever happen Trust in the mercies of God and imploy them incessantly but presume not to deferre thy conversion for a moment For who knows whether thou shalt ever from hence forward have time to invoke him and having invoked him whether thou shalt deserve to be heard Know that the mercy of God is not promised to those who therefore trust in him that they may sin with hope of pardon but unto those who fearing his Divine Justice cease to offend him wherefore St. Cregory says The mercies of Almighty God forget him Greg. in moral who forgets his Justice nor shall he find him merciful who does not fear him just For this it is so often repeated in Scripture That the mercy of God is for those who fear him And in one part it is said The mercy of the Lord from eternity unto eternity is upon those who fear him And in anothâ—r As the Father hath mercy on his Son so the Lord hath mercy on these who fear him In another According to the height from earth unto heaven he has corroborated his mercy upon those that fear him Finally the very Mother of mercy sayes in her Divine Canticle That the mercy of the Lord is from generation to generation upon those who fear him Thou seest then that the Divine mercy is not promised unto all and that thou shalt remain excluded from it whilest thou presumest and doest not fear his justice And
Titus Etherius dyed in the act of lust Giachetto Saluciano and his Mistress dyed in the same venerial action and their bodies were both found conjoyned in death as their souls went joyntly to hell Upon small matters and unexpected accidents depends the success of that moment upon which depends Eternity Let every one open his eyes and assure not himself of that life which hath so many entrances for death let no man say I shall not dye to day for many have thought so and yet sodainly dyed that very hour By so inconsiderable things as we have spoken of many have dyed and thou mayest dye without any of them For a sodain death there is no need of a hair or fish bone to strangle thee nor affliction of melancholy to oppress or excess of sodain joy to surprize thee it may happen without all these exteriour causes A corrupt humour in the entrails which flyes unto the heart without any body perceiving it is sufficient to make an end of thee and it is to be admired that no more dye sodainly considering the disorders of our lives and frailties of our bodies we are not of iron or brass but of soft and delicate flesh A Clock though of hard Mettal in time wears our and hath every hour need of mending and the breaking of one wheel stops the motion of all the rest There is more artifice in a humane body than in a Clock and it is much more subtle and delicate The nerves are not of steel nor the veins of brass nor the entrails of iron How many have had their livers or spleen corcupted or displaced and have dyed sodainly no man sees what he hath within his body and such may his infirmity be that although he thinks and feels himself well yet he may dye within an hour Let us all tremble at what may happen CAP. IV. Why the end of Temporal Life is terrible DEath because it is the end of life is by Aristotle said to be the most terrible of all things terrible What would he have said if he had known it to be the beginning of Eternity and the gate through which we enter into that vast Abyss no man knowing upon what side he shall fall into that profound and bottomless depth If death be terrible for ending the business and affairs of life what is it for ushering in that instant wherein we are to give an accompt of life before that terrible and most just Judge who therefore dyed that we might use it well It is not the most terrible part of death to leave the life of this world but to give an accompt of it unto the Creatour of the world especially in such a time wherein he is to use no mercy This is a thing so terrible that it made holy Job to tremble notwithstanding he had so good an accompt to make who was so just that God himself gloried in having such a Servant The Holy Ghost testifies that he sinned not in all what he had spoken in his troubles and calamities which were sent him not as a punishment for his sins but as a trial of his patience proposing him unto us an example of vertue and constancy and he himself protests that his Conscience did not accuse him yet for all this was so fearful of the strict judgment which God passes in the end of the world that amazed at the severity of his Divine Justice he cries out in his discourse with the Lord Who will give me that thou protect and hide me in hell Dionys Rikel artic 16. de noviss whilest thy fury passes Whereupon Dionysius Rikellius affirms that that instant wherein the Judgement of God is to be given is not onely more terrible than death but more terrible than to suffer the pains of hell for some certain time and this not onely unto those who are to be damned but even unto those who are elected for heaven Since therefore Job being so just and holy quaked at the apprehensions of that Divine Judgement when it was yet far from him and when we use not to be so sensible as of things at hand without doubt when a Sinner shall in that instant perceive himself to have displeased his Redeemer and Creatour although but in small faults yet it will afflict him more than the suffering of most great pains for which St. Basil judged that it was less to suffer eternal torments Basil hom contra divites avaros than the confusion of that day and therefore pondering that reprehension given unto the rich man in the Gospel Fool this night thy Soul shall be taken from thee Whose then shall be the riches which thou hast gotten the Saint avers that this mock this taunt did exceed an eternal punishment Death is terrible for many weighty reasons and every one sufficient to cause in us a mortal fear whereof not the least is the sight of the offended Judge who is not onely Judge but Party and a most irrefragable Witness in whose visage shall then appear such a severity against the wicked that St. Austin sayes he had rather suffer all manner of torments than to behold the face of his angry Judge And St. Chrysostome saith Chrys homi 24. in Math. It were better to be struck with a thousand Thunderbolts than to behold that countenance so meek and full of sweetness estranged from us and those eyes of peace and mildness not enduring to behold us The only sight of an Image of Christ crucified Rad. in opusc in annuis Societ which appeared with wrathful and incensed eyes although in this life when the field of mercy is open was sufficient so to astonish three hundred persons who beheld it that they fell unto the ground senseless and without motion and so continued for the space of some hours How will it then amaze us when we shall behold not a dead Image but Jesus Christ himself alive not in the humility of the Cross but upon a Throne of Majesty and Seat of Justice not in a time of mercy but in the hour of vengeance not naked with pierced hands but armed against Sinners with the Sword of Justice when he shall come to judge and revenge the injuries which they have done him God is as righteous in his justice as in his mercy and as he hath allotted a time for mercy so he will for justice and as in this life the rigour of his justice is as it were repressed and suspended so in that point of death when the Sinner shall receive judgment it shall be let loose and overwhelm him A great and rapid river which should for 30 or 40 years together have its current violently stopt what a mass of waters would it collect in so long a space and if it should then be let loose with what fury would it overrun and bear down all before it and what resistance could withstand it Since then the Divine justice Dan. 7. which the Prophet Daniel compares
not to an ordinary River but to a River of fire for the greatness and severity of the rigour shall be repressed for 30 or 40 years during the life of a man what an infinity of wrath will it amass together and with what fury will it burst out upon the miserable Sinners in the point of death All this rigour and severity shall the wretched Caytif behold in the face of the offended Judge And therefore the Prophet Daniel saith that a River of fire issued from his Countenance and that his Throne was of flames and the wheels of it burning fire because all shall then be fire rigour and justice He sets forth unto us his Tribunal and Throne with wheels to signifie thereby the force and violence of his omnipotency in executing the severity of his justice all which shall appear in that moment when Sinners shall be brought into judgment when the Lord as David sayes shall speak unto them in his wrath and confound them in his fury The which is also declared by other Prophets in most terrible and threatning words Isai 56. Isaias saith The Lord will come cloathed in garments of vengeance and covered with a robe of zeal and will give unto his adversaries his indignation and his enemies shall have their turn And the Wise-man to declare it more fully saith His zeal that is his indignation shall take up arms and shall arm the creatures to revenge him of his enemies he shall put on justice as a brest-plate be shall take the bead-piece of righteous judgment and embrace the inexpugnable shield of equity and shall sharpen his wrath as a lance Osee 13. The Prophet Osee declares the same proposing the Judge unto us not onely as an enraged and armed man but a fierce and cruel Beast and therefore speaking in the person of God saith I will appear unto them in that instant at a Bear that hath been robbed of her whelps I will tear their entrails in pieces and will devour them as a Lyon There is no beast more fierce of nature than a Lyon or Bear which hath lost her young ones the which will furiously assault him she first meets with and yet God whose nature is infinite goodness would compare himself unto so savage and cruel beasts to express the terrour of his justice and rigour with which he is in that day to shew himself against Sinners The consideration of this wrought so much with Abbot Agathon when he was at the point of dying In vitis Pat. that he continued three dayes in admiration his eyes for fear and dread continually broad open without moving from one side to the other Certainly all comparisons and exaggerations fall short of what it shall be since that day is The day of wrath and calamity That is the day when the Lord shall speak aloud in lieu of the many dayes wherein he hath been silent That is the day of which he spake by his Prophet I held my peace and was mute but I will then cry out as a woman in labour That day shall take up all his justice and shall recompence for all his years of sufferance That day shall be purely of justice without mixture of mercy hope of compassion help favour or any other patronage but of our works This is signified in that which Daniel saith that the Throne and Tribunal of God was of flames and that there shall proceed from his face a river of fire because fire besides that it is the most active nimble and vehement of all the Elements is also the most pure not admitting the mixture of any thing The earth contains Mines of Mettals and Quarries of Stone the water suffers in her bosome variety of Fishes the Air multitudes of vapours and exhalations and other bodies but Fire endures nothing it melts the hardest mettals reduces stones into cinders consumes living creatures converts trees into it self in so much as it is not onely impatient of a companion but infuses its own qualities into what it meets withall and turns even what is contrary unto it into its own substance and nature it does not onely melt snow but makes it boyl and makes cold iron burn So shall it be in that day all shall be rigour and justice without mixture of mercy nay the very mercies which God hath used towards a Sinner shall then be an argument and food for his justice O man which hast now time consider in what condition thou shalt see thy self in that instant when neither the blood of Christ shed for thee nor the Son of God crucified nor the intercession of the most blessed Virgin nor the Prayers of Saints nor the Divine mercy it self shall avail thee but shall onely behold an incensed and revenging God whose mercies shall then onely serve to augment his justice Thou shalt then perceive that none will take thy part but all will be against thee The most holy Virgin who is the Mother of mercy the mercy of God himself and the blood of thy Redeemer will all be against thee and onely thy good works shall stand for thee This life once past thou art to expect no Patron no Protector but thy vertuous actions onely they shall accompany thee and when thy Angel Guardian Theophan an 20. Herac. Imper. ut habetur in tom 2. p. 2. Concil in notis ad vitam Theodori Papae and all the Saints thy Advocates shall leave thee they onely shall not forsake thee See that thou provide thy self for that day take care thou now benefit thy self by the blood of Christ for thy salvation if not it will onely serve for thy greater damnation The whole world was amazed at the manner of the condemnation of Pyrrhus the Heretick by Pope Theodâ—rus who calling a Councel at Rome and placing himself close by the body of St. Peter in the presence of the whole Assembly took the consecrated Chalice and pouring the blood of Christ into the Ink did with his own hand write the Sentence of excommunion and Anathema by which he separated Pyrrhus from the Church of Christ This dreadful manner of proceeding brought a fear upon all those who heard it Do thou then tremble unto whom it may happen that the blood of thy Redeemer shall onely serve as a Sentence of thy eternal death For so severe will the Divine justice be in that day against a Sinner that if it were needful for his condemnation to confirm the Sentence with the blood of Christ it should although once shed upon the Cross for his salvation then onely serve to his damnation and eternal reprobation If this be true as nothing can be more certain how come we to be so careless how come we to laugh and rejoyce In vitis Pat. lib. 5. With great reason an old Hermite in the Desert beholding another laugh reprehended him for it saying We are to give a strict account before the Lord of Heaven and Earth the most inflexible Judge and darest thou be
for him see whereunto thou art obliged For this onely benefit thou oughtest not to move hand nor foot but for the service of so good and gracious a God A labourer who plants a tree hath right unto the fruit and God who created thee hath right unto thy works which are the fruits of man For this reason at the Garment of the High-Priest which represented the benefit of our Creation were hung many Pomgranates which are the noblest fruit of trees and bears a Crown to signifie that the good fruits of holy works which we ought to produce are to be crowned with a perfect and pure intention See then if thou canst do more for God for God could do no more for thee than to create thee for so high and eminent an end as is the possession of himself being no wayes due unto thy feeble and frail nature It being then so great a benefit to have created thee it is yet a greater to have preserved and suffered thee untill this instant without casting thee into a thousand hells for thy sins and offences This grace of conservation our Saviour noted when he said that he compassed and enclosed his Vineyard which was for the preservation of it See then what thy Creatour in this matter of conservation could have done more than he hath done for thee since being his enemy he hath preserved thee as his friend From how many for one onely fault committed hath he withdrawn his preservation and suffered them to die in that sin for which they are now in hell some of them if they had been pardoned would have proved more grateful than thou Behold how many Angels for their first offence he threw head-long down from heaven and expected them no longer and yet still expects thee See if he could do more for thee and see what thou art to do for him Consider that thou owest him for preserving thee as much as for creating thee preservation being a continued creation and more for preserving and suffering thee although his enemy In thy creation although thou didst not deserve a being yet thou demerited it not but in thy preservation thou hast deserved the contrary which is to be forsaken and abandoned But above all what is said is the benefit which thou receivest by the Incarnation of the Son of God which Christ signified when he said that the Lord of the Vineyard sent his Son See if God could have done more for his own salvation than he did for thine sending into the world his onely begotten Son to be incarnated for thee A greater work than this could not be done by the omnipotent arm of God Consider that he did not this for the Angels and yet did it for thee see if then thou canst comply with the love thou owest him with being less than a Seraphin in thy affection Consider likewise that it being in his power to redeem thee by making himself an Angel and onely interceding for thee yet he would not deprive thy nature of this honour but made himself a Man see if he could do more for thy good By making himself an Angel he might have honoured the Angelical nature and have likewise benefited thee but he would not but making himself a Man conferred both the honour and profit upon thee And if it be true which some Doctors say that God having proposed unto the Angels that they were to adore a Man who was also to be God and to be exalted above all their Hierarchies and that because they would not subject themselves unto an inferiour nature they therefore fell and became disobedient see what thou owest unto God for this so singular a favour who would make himself a Man that thou shouldest not be lost although with the loss of so many Angels better than thee Behold from whence he drew thee by this benefit which was from sin and hell and at such a time when thy miserable condition was desperate of all other remedy behold unto what he exalted thee to his grace and â—he inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven Behold in what manner and with what singular love and affection he did it even to his own loss and prejudice and as the Apostle saith by annihilating as it were himself that he might exalt thee taking upon him thy nature when it was not needful onely that he might conferre an honour upon thee which he would not upon the Angels See what God could do more for thee and see that thou mayest do much more for him and doest not Of the benefit of our redemption by the death and passion of Christ the Lord himself was not forgetful but signified it unto us even before he died saying That the Son whom the Lord of the Vineyard sent was slain in the pretense What could the Son of God do more for thee than die and shed his blood for thy benefit especially when it was not needful for thy redemption In the rigour of justice it was necessary that God should be incarnate or make himself an Angel to redeem thee but to suffer and die not at all But such was his infinite love as he would needs suffer and not with an ordinary death but would die so ignominiously as it seems he could not suffer more Set before thy eyes Christ crucified upon Mount Calvarie see if a Man more infamous be possible or imaginable executed publickly between two Theeves as a Traitor and an Heretick for broaching false Doctrine and making himself King as a Traitor unto Caesar Two crimes so infamous as they not onely defame the person who commits them but stain and infect his whole Stock and Linage Behold in what poverty he died if greater can be thought on to the end thou mayest see if it were possible he should doe more for thee than what he did Whilest he lived he had not whereon to repose his head but yet had cloathes wherewith to cover decently his nakedness but when he died even his garments failed him neither found he one drop of water to refresh his sacred lips even the earth refused him wanting whereon to rest his reverend feet Behold with what grief and pains he expired since from head to foot he was but one continued wound his feet and hands were pierced with nails and his head with thorns All was a high expression of an excessive love and to do for thee what he could see then what thou oughtest to doe and suffer for him who died and suffered for thee what he could and could do what he would After all these benefits consider his giving himself unto thee for food and sustenance in the most holy Sacrament the which was noted by Christ when he said That the Lord of the Vineyard built a Press for the Wine in which he gave his most precious blood It seems that the persons of the most holy Trinity were in competition and strove amongst themselves who should most oblige Man with their benefits and favours Let us express
it in this manner for to conceive it as it is in it self the understanding of Angels were not sufficient Here may be applyed that which antiquity admired in two great and famous Painters Apelles went to Rhodes to see Protogenes and not finding him at home took a Pensil and drew a most subtle line charging the Servants that they should tell their Master that he who drew that line was there to seek him When Protogenes returned they told him what had happened who took the Pensil and drew a stroke of another colour through the middle of that which Apelles had drawn and going about his business commanded his Servants that if he came again they should tell him that he whom he sought for had drawn that line through the middle of his It seemed there could not be imagined a higher favour and Courtship than that of the Eternal Father to have given his onely Son and have delivered him up to death for man but through the middle of this favour the Son drew another of most excessive fineness and subtilty which is the institution of the most blessed Sacrament the which some call an Extension of the Incarnation and is a Representation of the Passion and a Character and Memorial of the Wonders of God Here truely did the Son of God draw the stroke of his infinite love and consummated all the Divine benefits not onely giving himself for our benefit and behoof but entring into our very breasts to solicit our love and affection Anacreon writes That standing at defiance with the God of love and having resisted all his arrows the God at last when he had no more to shoot shot himself and penetrating his heart and entrails compell'd him to yield What other are the benefits of our Lord God than so many arrows of love which Man resists and not rendring himself neither at the benefit of Creation Conservation Incarnation or Passion let him at last render himself at this when God shoots himself into him and enters into his very breast and bowels to solicite his love If he resist this also what judgements expect him Whereupon St. Paul sayes that he who presumes to communicate unworthily eats and drinks the judgement of God that is swallows down the whole weight of Divine justice Consider then how dreadful it shall be unto a Sinner when he shall receive a charge not onely of his own being and his own life but also of the being and life or God of the Incarnation Passion Life and Death of Christ our Redeemer who hath so often given himself unto him in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood The Murtherer who stands charged with the life of a man although it be of some wicked person yet fears to be apprehended and brought to judgement how is it then that he who is charged with the life of God trembles not O how fearful a thing is it when a vile creature shall enter into judgement with his Creatour and shall be demanded an account of the blood of Christ whose value is infinite What account can he give of such a benefit and of all the rest which he hath received even from the greatest unto the least when Christ shall say unto him those words of St. Chrisostome Chrysost hom 24. in Math. I when thou hadst no being gave thee one inspired thee with a Soul and placed thee above all things that are upon the Earth I for thee created Heaven Air Sea Earth and all things and yet am dishonoured by thee and held more vile and base than the Devil himself and yet for all this have not ceased to do thee good and bestowed upon thee innumerable benefits For thy sake being God I was content to make my self a Servant was buffetted spit upon and condemned to a punishment of Slaves and to redeem thee from death suffered the death of the Cross In Heaven I interceded for thee and from thence sent thee the Holy Ghost I invited thee unto the Kingdom of Heaven offered my self to be thy Head thy Spouse thy Garment thy House thy Root thy Food thy Drink thy Shepheard thy Brother I chose thee for the Heir of Heaven and drew thee out of darkness unto light To such excesses of love what have we to answer but to stand astonisht and confounded that we have been so ungrateful and given occasion to the Devil of one of the greatest scorns and injuries which could be put upon our Redeemer when he shall say unto him Thou createdst man for him wast born in poverty livedst in labours and diedst in pain and torments I have done nothing for him but would have drunk his blood and sought to damn him into a thousand hells and yet for all this it is I whom he strives to please and not thee Thou doest prepare for him a Crown of eternal glory I desire to torment him in hell and yet he had rather serve me without interest than thee for thy promise of so great a reward I should have been ashamed to have created and redeemed a wretch so ungrateful unto him from whom he hath received so great benefits but since he loves me better than thee let him be mine unto whom he hath so often given up himself We are not onely to give an account of these general benefits but of those which are more particular of the good examples which we have seen of the instructions which we have heard of the inspirations which have been sent us and the Sacraments which we have received we have much to do to correspond with all these Let us therefore tremble at that strict judgement let us tremble at our selves who are so careless of that for which all the care in the world is not sufficient And if it were not for the blood of Christ what would become of us but the time of benefitting our selves by that will be then past now is the time and if we shall now despise and outrage it in what case shall we be Let us not mispend the time of this life since so severe an account will be demanded of all the benefits which we have received one of which is the Time of this temporal life and the blessings of it Let us take heed what use we make of it let us not lose it since we are to answer for every part of it Sopronin Prato spirituali ca. 59. de Beato Thalilaeo This made holy Thalileus tremble and weep bitterly who being asked the cause of his tears answered This time is bestowed upon us wherein to do penance and a most strict account will be demanded of us if we despise it It is not ours for which we are to answer we are not the Lords of time let us not therefore dispose of it for our own pleasure but for the service of God whose it is This consideration were sufficient to with-draw our affection from the goods of this life and to settle it upon those which are eternal since we are
purified in that general burning and then shall be renewed the Earth the Heavens the Stars and the Sun which shall shine seaven times more than before and the creatures which have here been violated and oppressed by the abuse of man whereof some had taken armes against him to revenge the injuries of their Creatour and others groaned under their burthen with grief and sorrow shall then rejoyce to see themselves freed from the tyranny of sin and sinners and joyful of the triumph of Christ shall put on mirth and gladness This is the end wherein all time is to determine and this the Catastrophe so fearful unto the wicked where all things temporal are to conclude Let us therefore take heed how we use them and that we may use them well let us be mindful of this last day this day of justice and calamity this day of terrour and amazement the memory whereof will serve much for the reformation of our lives Let us think of it and fear it for it is the most terrible of all things terrible and the consideration of it most profitable and available to cause in us a holy fear of God and to convert us unto him Joh. Curopol in hist apud Rad. in opusc in vitis PP Occidentis John Curopolata writes of Bogoris King of the Bulgarians a Pagan who was so much addicted to the hunting of wilde beasts that he desired to have them painted in his Palace in all their fury and fierceness and to that end commanded Methodius the Monk a skilful Painter to paint them in so horrible a manner as the very sight might make the beholders tremble The discreet Monk did it not but in place of it painted the Day of Judgement and presented it unto the King who beholding that terrible act of Justice and the coming of the Son of God to judge the World crowning and rewarding the just and punishing the wicked was much astonished at it and being after instructed left his bad life and was converted to the faith of Christ If onely then the Day of Judgement painted was so terrible what shall it be executed Almost the same happened unto St. Dositheus Anon. in Elog. Dorothei Dosithei who being a young man cokored and brought up in pleasures had not in his whole life so much as heard of the Day of Judgement until by chance he beheld a Picture in which were represented the pains of the damned at which he was much amazed and not knowing what it was was informed of it by a Matron present which he apprehended so deeply that he fell half dead upon the ground not being able to breath for fear and terrour after coming to himself he demanded what he should doe to avoid that miserable condition it was answered him by the same Matron that he should fast pray and abstain from flesh which he immediately put in execution And though many of his house and kindred endeavoured to divert and disswade him yet the holy fear of God and the dread of eternal condemnation which he might incurre remained so fixt in his memory that nothing could withdraw him from his rigorous penance and holy resolution until becoming a Monk he continued with much fruit and profit Let us therefore whiles we live ever preserve in our memory this day of terrour that we may hereafter enjoy security for the whole eternity of God THE THIRD BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. The mutability of things temporal makes them worthy of contempt HItherto we have spoken of the shortness of time and consequently of all things temporal and of the end wherein they are to conclude Nothing is exempted from death and therefore not onely humane life but all things which follow time and even time it self at last must die Wherefore Hesichius Damas in Par. l. 1. as he is translated by St. John Damascen saith That the splendour of this world is but as withered leaves bubles of water smoke stubble a shadow and dust driven by the wind all things that are of earth being to end in earth But this is not all for besides the certainty of end they are infected with another mischief which renders them much more contemptible than that which is their instability and continual changes whereunto they are subject even whilest they are For as time it self is in a perpetual succession and mutation as being the brother and inseparable companion of Motion so it fixes this ill condition unto most of those things which pass along in it the which not onely have an end and that a short one but even during that shortness of time which they last have a thousand changes and before their end many ends and before their death many deaths each particular change which our life suffers being the death of some estate or part of if For as death is the total change of life so every change is the death of Come part Sickness is the death of health sleeping of waking sorrow of joy impatience of quiet youth of infancy and age of youth The same condition hath the universal world and all things in it for which cause they deserve so much contempt that Marcus Aurelius the Emperour wondered that there could be found a man so senseless Aur. Anton l. 6. de vita sua as to value them and therefore speaks in this manner Of that very thing which is now in doing some part is already vanisht changes and alterations continually innovate the world as that immense space of time by a perpetual flux renews it self Who therefore shall esteem those things which never subsist but pass along in this headlong and precipitate river of time is as he who sets his affection upon some little bird which passes along in the air and is no more seen Thus much from this Philosopher This very cause of the little value of things temporal proceeding from their perpetual changes together with the end whereunto they are subject is as St. Gregory notes signified unto us by that Woman in the Apocalyps Greg. l. 34. moral who had the Moon under her feet and her head adorned with twelve Stars Certainly the Moon as well as the Stars might have been placed in her Diadem but it was trod under foot by reason of the continual changes and alterations which it suffers whereby it becomes a figure of things temporal which change not onely every Moneth but every day the same day being as Euripides sayes now a Mother then a Stepmother The same was also signified by the Angel Apoc. 10. who crowned with a Rainbow descended from heaven to proclaim that all time was to end with his right foot which presses and treads more firmly he stood upon the Sea which by reason of its great unquietness is also a figure of the instability of this World And therefore with much reason did the Angel who had taught us by his voice that all time and temporal things
were to have an end shew us also by this signe that for their instability and inconstancy they were even before their end to be trodden under foot and despised But more lively is the same exprest by the same St. John Apoc. 15. Ribera Cornel when he beheld the Saints standing upon the Sea to note that whilest they lived they contemned and trampled under foot the transitory and fading things of this World and to declare it more fully he sayes the Sea was of glass then which nothing is more frail and although hard yet brittle Needs must the instability of things temporal be very great and therefore most despicable because it proceeeds from so many causes For as the Sea hath two several kinds of motion the first natural by which it riseth and falleth daily with continual ebbs and flows so as the waves when they are most quiet are yet still moving and inconstant the other violent when the waters are raised and incensed by some furious tempest in the same manner the things of this World are naturally of themselves fading and transitory and without any exteriour violence suffer a continual change and run rowling on toward their end but besides are also subject to other unthought of accidents and extraordinary violences which force nature out of her course and raise huge storms in the Sea of this life by which those things which we most esteem suffer shipwrack For as the fairest flower withers of it self yet is oftentimes before born away by the wind or perishes by some storm of hail The most exact beauties lose their lustre by age but are often before blasted by some violent Feaver The most costly Garments wear out in time if before not taken from us by the Theef The strongest and most sumptuous Palaces decay with continuance if before not ruined by Fire or Earthquakes In like manner both their own nature and extrinsecal violences deprive temporal things even of time it self and trail them along in perpetual changes leaving nothing stable Let us cast our eyes upon those things which men judge most worthy to endure Nazian in Monod Pli. l. 36. c. 8. and made them to the end they should be eternal How many changes and deaths have they suffered St. Gregory Nazienzen places the City of Thebes in Aegypt as the chiefest of those wonders which the world admired Pompâ—n Mela l. 1. c. 9. Most of the houses were of Alabaster Marble spotted with drops of gold which made them appear most splendid and magnificent Upon the walls were many pleasant Gardens Sur. in Comm. an 1517 Evag. l. 2. c. 1. which they called Horti pensiles or hanging Gardens and the Gates were no less than a hundred out of which the Prince could draw forth numerous Armies without noise or knowledge of the people Pomponius Mela writes that out of every Port there issued 10000 armed men Euseb de praepar Hieron in Dan. c. 1. Polusl 2. rerum Indic c. 68. which in the whole came to be an Army of a million Yet all this huge multitude could not secure it from a small Army conducted by a Youth who as St. Jerome writes took and destroyed it Marcus Polus writes that he passed by the City of Quinsay which contained fourscore millions of souls and Nicholas de Conti passing not many years after by the same way found the City wholly destroyed Nicol. de Com. in itin apud Ram. tom 1. and begun to be newly built after another form But yet in greater than this was the City of Ninive which according to the holy Scripture was of three dayes journey and it is now many ages since that we know not where it stood Plin. l. 6. c. 26. Sol. c. 3. No less stately but perhaps better fortified was the City of Babylon and that which was the Imperial City of the World became a Desert and a Habitation of Harpies Onocentaurs Satyrs Monsters and Devils as was foretold by the Prophets and the walls which were 200 foot in height and 50 in breadth could not defend it from time And yet the holy Scripture describes Ecbatana the chief City of Media to be more strong than that It was built by Arphaxad King of the Medes of square stone the Walls contained seventy cubits in breadth thirty cubits in height and the Towers which encompassed it were each in height a hundred cubits and yet for all this could not the Median Empire having such a head escape from rendring it self unto the Assyrians And the same Monarch who built it and made the World to tremble under him came to lose it and himself and having conquered many Nations became at last conquered and a Slave unto his enemies It is not much that Cities have suffered so many changes since Monarchies and Empires have done the same and so often hath the World changed her face as she hath changed her Monarch and Master He who had seen the World as it was in the time of the Persians would not have known it as it was in the time of the Assyrians and he who knew it in the time of the Persians would not have judged it for the same when the Greeks were Masters After in the time of the Romans it appeared with a face not known before and he who knew it then would not know it now and some years hence it will put on another form being in nothing more like it self than in its perpetual changes and alterations for which cause it hath been ever worthy of scorn and contempt and more now than ever Cyp. in Epist ad Demet since it becomes every day worse and grows old and decayes with age as St Cyprian notes in those words Thou art to know that the World is already grown old and doth not remain in that strength and vigour which it had at first This the World it self tells us and the daily declining of it into worse needs no other testimony The Winter wants the usual rains to fertilize the earth the Summer the accustomed heat to ripen the corn the Autumn is not loaden as heretofore with fruits nor the Spring glads us with the delight and pleasure of its sweet temperature out of the hollowed Mountains are drawn less pieces of marble and the exhausted Mines yield less quantities of gold and silver The Labourer is wanting in the Fields the Mariners in the Seas the Souldier in the Tents Innocency in the Market-places Justice in the Tribunals Sincerity in Friendship Skill in Arts and Discipline in Manners Necessary it is that that should decay which thus daily sinks into it self and approaches towards an end Immediately he adds This is the doom of the World This the ordinance of God all that is born must die all that increases must grow old the strong become feeble the great diminish and when diminished perish Anciently our lives extended beyond 800 or 900 years now few arrive unto an hundred We see boys grown gray and our
pointing with his finger simply told him That was he And wherefore replyed the Saint is this man more to be esteemed than the rest is it perhaps because he is more vertuous or is it because he is adorned with more exterior lustre and bravery is not he likewise to die as well as the most poor and unknown beggar is he not to be buried is he not as well as the rest of men to appear before the just Judge Wherefore then doest thou value those things which are to pass as if they were to last for ever Wherefore doest thou admire that which hath no consistence It were fitter for thee to place thy eyes and heart upon things eternal and incorruptible and to be enamoured of those which are not subject to change and death The same Disciple of Spiridion being now Bishop travelled one time with his Master who was then also Archbishop of Trimitunte and as they came to a certain place where the fields were very fertile and pleasant the Disciple being much taken with them began to cast within himself how he might compass an Inheritance in that good Country and lay it to his Church The Saint who understood his thoughts gave him this sweet and gentle reprehension To what purpose dear Brother doest thou trouble thy thoughts with things so vain and of so little substance Wherefore doest thou desire Land and Vineyards to labour and cultivate doest thou not know that these things are onely of an outward appearance and within are nothing or at least are worth nothing We have an Inheritance in Heaven which none can take from us There we have a house not made by the hands of men Look after those goods and begin now even before the time by the vertue of hope to enjoy them Those goods are of that condition that if you once possess them and make your self Lord of them you shall be then their eternal heir and your Inheritance shall never pass to others Let one place himself in the point of death and let him from thence on the one part behold the littleness of all things temporal which are now past and on the other the greatness of Eternity whereinto he enters which shall never pass and he shall easily discover how all the greatness and commodities of this life are for their littleness and short endurance rather worthy of laughter than admiration CAP. VII How miserable a thing is this Temporal Life LEt us also consider more particularly the substance and bulk of humane life which we so much esteem and we shall not a little wonder how so many and so great misfortunes can happen in so short a space Whereupon Phalaris the Agregentin was used to say That if a man before he was born knew what he was to suffer in life he would not be born at all For this reason some Philosophers repenting that they lived would blaspheme Nature railing at it with a thousand complaints and injuries because to the best of living things it had given so bad and wretched a life not reaching so high as to know that this was an effect of the fault of man and not a fault of Nature or Divine Providence Pliny would say That Nature was but a Stepmother to mankind and Silenus being demanded what was the greatest happiness man was capable of said Not to be born or die quickly The great Philosopher and Emperour Marcus Aurelius considering humane misery spake in this discreet manner Aurel. Anton. in sua Philosoph The warre of this life is dangerous and the end and issue of it so terrible and dreadful that I am certain that if any of the ancient should rise again and recount unto us faithfully and give us a view of his life past from the time he came out of his Mothers womb unto his last gasp the body relating at large the pains and griefs it hath suffered and the heart the alarms it hath received from fortune that all men would be amazed at a body that had endured so much and at a heart that had gained so great a victory and dissembled it I here confess freely and although to my shame yet for the profit that may redound to future ages that in the space of fifty years which I have lived I have desired to prove the utmost of all the vices and excesses of this life to see if the malice of man had any bounds and limits and I finde after long and serious inquisition that the more I eat the more is my hunger and the more I drink the greater is my thirst if I sleep much the more is my desire to sleep the more I rest the more weary and indisposed I finde my self the more I have the more I covet and the more I grasp the less I hold Finally I attain to nothing which doth not surfeit and cloy me and then presently I abhorre it and desire something else This is the judgement of Philosophers concerning the miseries of mans life The same is that of the Wiseman Eccl. 3. when he sayes All the dayes of man are full of grief and misery neither do his thoughts rest at night Stob. ser 96. With reason did Democritus say That the life of man was most miserable since those who seek for Good hardly finde it and Evil comes of it self and enters our gates unsought for insomuch as our life is alwayes exposed unto innumerable dangers injuries losses and so many infirmities that according to Pliny and many Physicians Greeks and Arabians there were more than thirty several sorts of new diseases discovered in the space of a few years and now every day they finde out others and some so cruel as they are not to be named without horrour Neither speak I onely of the infirmities but of their remedies For even griefs known and common are cured by cauterizing with fire by sawing off a member by tripanizing the scull or drawing bones from it Some have been cured with the opening the belly and drawing forth the guts Others by reason of the great malice of the disease are cured with so strange diets that the sick persons as Cornelius Celsus writes have for very thirst drunk their Urine and eaten their Plasters for raging hunger Others are prescribed to eat Snakes Mice Worms and other loathsome Vermin But above all the cure of Palaeologus the Second Emperour of Constantinople was most cruel and extravagant whose infirmity after a years continuance found no other remedy but to be continually vext and displeased his Wife and Servants who most desired his health having no wayes to restore it but by disobedience still crossing and opposing him in what he most desired a harsh cure for a Prince If remedies be so great evils what are the infirmities The sickness of Angelus Politianus was so vehement that he knockt his head against the walls That of Mecoenas so strange that he slept not nor closed his eyes in three whole years That of Antiochus so pestilential
one day Whereupon St. Austin sayes Such is the beauty of righteousness Augus de libero arb 3. such the joy of that eternal light of that immutable truth and wisdom that although we were not to continue in it above one day yet for so short a time a thousand years in this life replenished with delights and abundance of all goods temporal were justly to be despised For it was not spoken amiss that Better is one day in thy Courts above a thousand So that whereas it is commonly said that for eternal joyes we ought to leave the temporal and frail goods of the earth which are short and transitory St. Austin sayes that if those of heaven were short and these of earth Eternal yet we ought to forsake these for those This is confirmed by that which is written by Thomas de Cantiprato and others Lib. 2. c. 57. N. 67. That the Devil being demanded by an Exorcist what he would suffer to see God answered That he would suffer all that the damned in hell Men and Devils were to suffer until the day of Judgement onely that he might enjoy the sight of him but for some short time How can we then complain of the short troubles of this life which are to be recompenced with the clear vision of God for ever when his professed Enemy would suffer so much onely to enjoy it for an insant Cato having onely read that discourse of Socrates concerning immortality thought it nothing to part with this life and tear his bowels in pieces that he might enjoy that eternal liberty of the Soul freed from the incumbrances and oppressions of the Body Jo. Herol in Promp Exem Heroldus writes that Frier Jordan General of the holy Order of the preaching Friers exorcizing a possest person the Devil amongst other answers to his demands told him That he had never seen the face of God but onely during the twinkling of an eye and that to see it so much longer he would willingly suffer all the pains of his companions until the day of Judgement Frier Jordan remained astonished at this answer and recalling himself a little he said unto him Thou hast said well But declare me his beauty by some similitude or representation Thou hast moved a foolish question replied the Spirit for there is no expressing of it But to give some satisfaction to thy desire I say that if the beauties of all Creatures Heavens Earth Flowers Pearls and all other things that can give any delight to the sight were all comprised in one onely thing if every one of the Stars yielded as much light as the Sun and the Sun shined as bright as all they together all this united so together would be in respect of the beauty of God Almighty as a dark pitchy night in respect of the clearest and brightest day Where by the way it is to be observed that the Devils never saw God clearly as the Angels in glory now behold him but onely by the excellency of their nature attained to some particular and advantagious knowledge of his beauty and divine perfections and joy which resulted from that knowledge And if to enjoy that once again for so short a time they would endure those torments for so long a space what shall it be to behold him clearly in his glory Certainly to be rosted pluckt in pieces with pincers to be burnt alive for a thousand years were well employed to enjoy that felicity but for a day What shall it be to possess it for an eternity when the joy also of each day shall be equivalent to many years Joh. Major Ex. 14. Ex Coll. Psal 89. Wherefore Johannes Major reports that a certain Monk being at Mattins with the other Religious of his Monastery and coming to that verse of the Psalm where it is said A thousand years in the presence of God are but as yesterday which is already past began to imagine with himself how it might be possible and remaining in the Quire as his manner was after the end of Mattins to perfect his devotions he humbly besought the Lord to grant him the true understanding of that place which he had no sooner done but he perceived a little Bird in the Quire that with flying up and down before him by little and little with her most melodious singing insensibly drew him forth of the Church into a Wood not farre off where pearching her self upon a bough she for some short time as it seem'd to him continued her musick to the unspeakable delight of the Monk and then flew away leaving him by her absence no less sad and pensive But seeing she came no more he returned back thinking he had left his Monastery the same morning immediately after Mattins and that it was now about the third hour but coming to the Convent which was near the Wood he found the Gate by which he was accustomed to enter to be mured up and another opened in some other part where calling upon the Porter he was demanded Who he was From whence he came and What was his business He answered that he was the Sacristan of the Church and that having that morning gone abroad after Mattins he found all things at his return changed The Porter demanded of him the name of the Abbot the Prior the Procurator He named them all and wondered he was neither understood nor permitted to enter and why they feigned not to know those Religious whom he mentioned and desired to be brought to the Abbot but coming into his presence neither the Abbot knew him nor he the Abbot whereat the good Monk being much astonished knew not what to say or do The Abbot asked him his name and that of his Abbot and turning the Annals of the Monastery found it was more than three hundred years since the death of those persons which he named Whereupon the Monk making a relation of what had happened unto him concerning the Psalm they acknowledged him and admitted him as a Brother into their profession where having received the Sacraments of the Church he with much peace ended his dayes in our Lord. If the pleasure of one sense did so ravish the Soul of this Servant of God what shall it be when not onely the hearing but the light smell taste the whole body and soul shall be drowned in joyes proportionable to the senses of the one and power of the other If the musick of a little Bird did so transport him what shall the musick of Angels what shall the clear vision of God what shall God himself doe when he makes oftentation if so may say of his omnipotency For as Assuerus who raigned from India to Aethiopia over 170 Provinces made a great Feast for all his Princes which lasted 181 dayes So shall this King of Heaven and Earth make his great Supper of glory which shall last for all eternity for the setting forth of his Majesty and for the honour and entertainment of his Servants where
Third an immortal Death O Death how much less cruel art thou in taking away life than in forcing to live in so painful a manner Greg. Moral l. 9. c. 49. St. Gregory also sayes In hell there shall be unto the miserable a death without death and an end without end for their death shall ever live and their end shall ever begin Mortal sin is the greatest of all evils and consequently deserves the greatest of all punishments Because in ordinary death which takes away the use of the senses the rigour of it is not felt God ordained another kind of death in which the senses perpetually dying should perpetually feel the force of pain and should ever live in the agony of dying This David signitied when he said That death should feed on the damned for as the Flock pastures upon the grass but ends it not because it still grows green and fresh again so that death feeds upon sinners but consumes them not This death of the damned the holy Scripture calls the second death Because it succeeds the first and comprehends both that of soul and bodie And with much reason may it also be called a double death because death is then doubled when we die and feel the torment of dying which in the first death of the body we do not Even here amongst us if there should be a condition in which we might be sensible but of some part of that which death brings along with it it would be esteemed a greater evil than death it self Who doubts but if one after burial should find himself alive and sensible under the earth where he could speak with no body see nothing but darkness hear nothing but those who walked above him smell nothing but the rotten stink of their bodies cat nothing but his own flesh nor feel any thing but the earth which opprest him or the cold pavement of the Vault where he lay Who doubts not I say but that this estate were worse than to be wholly dead since life onely served to feel the pain of death For this reason the ingenious Romans when they would punish Sacriledge which is the greatest crime made use of interring the offenders alive as of the greatest punishment and therefore executed it upon their Vestal Virgins when they offended a gainst their chastity as upon Oppia and Minutia that being alive they might feel the pain and bitterness of dying And certainly Zeno the Emperour found this punishment so bitter that he devoured his own flesh by morsels What Sepulcher is more horrible than that of Hell what is eternally shut upon those who are in it whore the miserable damned remain not onely under earth but under fire having sense for nothing but to feel death darkness loathsomness pain and stink This is therefore a double death because to feel the pain of death is an evil double to that of dying Lib. 6. de Civit. ca. 12. Wherefore St. Austin said No death is greater or worse than where death dies not Besides this death of Hell may be called a double death in respect it contains both the death of sin ang the death of pain those unfortunate wretches standind condemned never to be freed from the death of sin and for ever to be tormented with the death of pain There is no greater death than that of the Soul which is sin in which the miserable are to continue whilest God is God with that infinite evil and that ugly deformity which sin draws along with it which is worse than to suffer that eternal fire which is but the punishment of it After sin what pain should there be greater than that of sin it self and for this reason in Hell in regard 't is the torment for sin it is a greater pain than death it self or the most horrible death of all Who trembles not with the onely memory that he is to die remembring that he is to cease to be that the feet whereon he walks are no more to bear him that his hands are no more to serve him nor his eyes to see Why then do we not rather tremble at the thought of Hell in respect of which the first death is no punishment but a reward a happiness and a joy there being no damned in Hell but would take that death which we here inflict for offences as an ease of his pains O how much does the Divine Justice exceed the humane since that which men give unto those whom they condemn for the greatest offences would be received by those whom God condemns as a great ease comfort and accomplishment of their desires who shall desire death and death shall flye from them for unto all their evils and miseries this as the greatest is adjoyned that neither They nor It shall shall ever die This circumstance of being eternal doth much augment the torments of Hell such being the condition of eternity as hath been already declared that it doth infinitely augment that whereunto it is annexed Let us suppose that one had but a Gnat that should sting his right hand and a Wasp at the left and that one foot should be pricked with a Thorn and the other with a Pin. If this onely were to last for ever it would be an intolerable torment What will it then be when hands feet arms head bread and entrails are to burn for all eternity The onely holding one finger in a Candle for the space of a quarter of an hour no body would be able to suffer it To be then plunged into the infernal flames for years eternal what understanding is there that is able I do not say to express in words but to frame a due conception of this torment That a torment is never to cease and that the tormented is to live for ever the onely thinking of it causes great horror What would it be to suffer it Sur. To. 7. die 14. April A certain man who had not much repentance or feeling it seems of his sins having expressed divers most heinous offences to the holy Virgin St. Lidwine the Saint replyed That she would do penance for them contenting her self that he should onely lye in his Bed one night in the same posture looking up towards Heaven without moving or turning himself all night The man very contented and joyful If my penance says he be no greater than this I shall soon have performed it But he was scarce laid down in his Bed when he had a mind to turn on one side it being a great trouble to him not to do it perswading himself that he never lay so uneasie his whole life before and said unto himself My Bed is a very good one and soft I am well in health what is wanting to me nothing else is wanting but onely to turn me from one side to the other But this what is it be quiet and sleep as thou art till morning Canst thou not then tell me what doth aile thee By this means he call'd
to mind eternity discoursing thus with himself How comes this to pass that thou canst not red one single night it being such a torture to be still without turning thy self What would it be if thou wert to remain in one posture three or four nights Certainly it would be a death unto me Truly I should never have believed one could suffer so much in a thing so easie Wo is me How little patience have I since a thing so small and trivial grieves me so much What would it have been if the had commanded me to lye watching many weeks What would it be if I had the Collick or were tormented with the Stone or Sciatica Far greater evils than these are prepared for thee in Hell whither thou posts by running into so many sins Consider what a Couch Is prepared for thee in that abyss of misery what Feather-bed what Holland Sheets Thou shalt be cast upon burning coals stames and fulphur shall be thy Coverlets Mark well whether this Bed be for one night onely Yea nights dayes moneths and years ages and eternities thou art to remain on that side thou fallest on without having the least relief to turn thy self unto the other That fire shall never die neither shalt thou ever die to the end its torments may last eternally After an hundred years and after an hundred thousand millions of years they shall be as lively and as vigorous as at the first day See what thou doest by not fearing eternal death by making no account of eternity by setting so much of thy affection on a temporal life Thou doest not walk the right way change thy life and begin to serve thy Creatour So did this man being convinced by this discourse He amended his life And let him do the like who comes to read this Let him know that if they should tell him that he were not to stir out of a Bed of roses for twenty years space he would not be able to suffer it How will he be able to lie upon a Bed of hot burning coals in flames of sulphur for all eternity § 2. Unto all those pains shall be joyned that of Talion which is To pay with proportion so much for so much which also shall not be wanting in Hell And therefore it is said in the Ayocalyps By how much she glorified her self and lived in delights Give her so much of torment There shall the delicious person be afflicted he who contemned others be despised and the proud trampled under foot it being most convenient for the Divine Justice that the damned in hell should be punished in the same manner wherein they have here offended as may appear by this example rehearsed by Henry Gran. A young Damsel Henric. Gran. d. 9. c. 200. as to outward appearance given to Prayer Fastings Watchings and Penance and for this reason esteemed by all for a Saint She fell dangerously sick and having made her confession died Within a short time after she appeared to her Confessarius in a black and fearful shape The priest not knowing her demanded Who she was I am quoth she that one that was held by all for a Saint I am none but a most miserable wretch since I am condemned to hell fire where I shall never cease to be tormented in company of the most abject and contemptible Fiends and that for the content and satisfaction I took in my self and for the pride I had esteeming my self far above others having a base and vile conceit of all For this vice I shall live in eternal torments Though God should drie up the Sea and fill up the empty places thereof with the smallest sand that can be imagined and should permit that a little Bird should but take one grain every hundred years God's wrath and Justice would not be satisfied with the torments my Soul shall suffer until such time as the said little Bird should take out every grain of the foresaid sand For were this granted I would most willingly suffer all the time required for the performance thereof all the pains and torments of all the damned Souls in Hell with this onely proviso that at last my Soul might come to obtain salvation But there is no remedy now And therefore Father do not put your self to the trouble to pray tor me being nothing can avail me In this History we have seen Pride chastised by humiliation In tills that follows we shall see Pleasures and delightful entertainments chastised with proportionable torments Cantip. l. 2. c. 49. p. 2. Joan Major v. Infernus Exemp 6. Cantipratensis writes That in the parts of Teutonia there was a Souldier very valiant and much given to Tilting and Running at the Ring And according as he lived so he died miserably His Wife who was a devout person and of exemplar life after the death of her Husband had in an Extasie manifested unto her the miserable state of her Husbands Soul It was represented unto her as if it were still united to the Body encompassed with a multitude of Devils Whereof the Principal in her hearing gave command they should furnish their new Guest with a pair of Shoes fit for his feet which piercing them might reach to his very head Then he commanded they should put him on a Coat of Male made full of sharp points which might pierce his whole body in all parts After this a third command was that they should put him on a Helmet with a sharp nail that might pierce his head and come to be clenched below his feet Finally by his command they hung a Target about his neck so heavy that it might crush all the bones in his body All this being punctually and speedily performed the Prince of darkness told his Officers This worthy person alter he had entertained himself in Tilting and the like menages of valour was accustomed to refresh his toyled limbs with sweet Baths and then to retire to some soft Bed sporting himself afterwards with other comfortable dalliances of sensuality Give him now somewhat of those refreshments which are usual here They presently hurl'd him into a fire prepared then to ease him they placed him in a Bed red hot where a Toad waited for him of an immense size with eyes most dreadful which clipped the Souldier very close kissing and embracing him in such a rueful manner that it was the most dreadful of all the torments he had suffered and brought him even to pangs of death That good woman who by Gods appointment had seen what past in her Husband had this vision so fresh in memory all the dayes of her life and with such continual oppressions of heart that none who had known her before beholding her afterwards could otherwise imagine but that she suffered some great and extraordinary affliction Many other pains and torments proportionable to the crimes committed may be seen in the works of Wermero A Gentleman of noble Parentage Wermer Mon. Carthu in fasciculo morum an English man
would he be unto so merciful a benefactor He hath done no less for us but much more For if he hath not drawn us out of Hell he hath not thrown us into it as we deserved which is the greater favour Tell me if a Creditor should cast that Debtor into prison who owed him a thousand Duckets and after the enduring of much affliction at last release him or should suffer another who owed him fifty thousand Duckets to goe up and down free without touching a thread of his garment Whether of the Debtors received the greater benefit I believe thou wilt say the latter More then are we endebted unto God Almighty and therefore ought to serve him better Consider how a man would live who should be restored to life after he had been in Hell Thou shouldst live better since thou art more indebted to Almighty God Lib. 4. Dialog cap. 36. St. Gregory writes of one who though he had not been released out of Hell but onely was upon the point of damnation yet led afterwards such a life that the change was admirable The Saint sayes that a Monk called Peter who before he retired to the desert was in a trance for some time as dead and being restored to his senses made this relation That he had had a sight of Hell and that he had seen in it great chastisements and innumerable places full of fire and that he knew some who had been very powerful in the World hanging in the midst of the flames and himself being now at the brink to be cast into the same he saw on the sudden a bright shining Angel who withheld him faying Return to thy body and confider well with what care and diligence it suits with thy profession to lead thy life from hence forwards So it was that being returned to his body he treated it with such austerity of penance watches and fasts that although he should not have spoken a word his manner of life did publish sufficiently what he had seen Secondly we are taught to exercise an invincible patience in suffering the afflictions and troubles of this life that by enduring these thankfully we may escape those of the other He who shall consider the eternity of those torments which he deserves will not grumble at the pains of this short life how bitter soever There is no state or condition upon earth how necesitous how poor how miserable soever which the damned would not endure and think it an infinite happiness if they might change with it Neither is there any course of life so austere which he who had once experienced those burning flames if he might live again would not make more rigorous He who hath once deserved eternal torments let him never murmure at temporal evils let his mouth be ever stopt from complaining of the crosses or petty injuries offered him in this life who hath committed offences worthy the pains of the other From this consideration there was nothing which the Saints would not willingly suffer no penance which they would not undergoe Apoc. 14. Wherefore St. John the Evangelist after he had spoken of the smoke which ascended from the torments of the damned for a world of worlds and and that they did not rest by day nor night presently adds Here is the patience of the Saints because seeing that all the troubles of this life were temporal and the torments of the other eternal nothing that they endured seemed much unto them Chrysost To. 5. Epist 5. ad Theod. So did St. John Chrsostome and advises us to do the like bearing with patience all temporal pains whatsoever with the consideration of the eternal From the consideration of little thing saith he let us frame a conjecture of the great If thou goe into a Bath and shalt find it excessive hot think on Hell If thou art tormented with the heat think on Hell If thou art tormented with the heat of some violent Fever pass unto the consideration of those eternal flames which burn without end and think that if a Bath or Calenture so afflict thee how shalt thou endure that River of fire Homil. 2. in 1. Ep. ad Thess And further the same Saint When thou shalt see any thing great in this present life think presently of the Kingdom of Heaven and so thou shalt not value it much and when thou shalt see any thing terrible think on Hell and thou wilt laugh at it When the concupiscence or desire of any temporal thing shall afflict thee think that the delight of sin is of no estimation and that the pleasure of it is nothing For if the fear of Lawes which are enacted upon earth be of that force that they are able to deterre us from evil actions much more will the thought of things to come and that immortal chastisement of eternal pain If the fear of an Earthly King divert us from many evils how much more shall the fear of a King eternal If the fight of a dead man detain us much more shall the thought of hell and that eternal death If we often think of hell we shall never fall into it We ought also often to call to minde the evils of the next life that we may more despise the pleasures of this because temporal felicity uses often to end in eternal miserie All that is precious in the world honour wealth fame pleasure all the splendour of the Earth is but smoke and a shadow if we compare the small duration of them with the eternity of those torments in the other world Put all the Silver in the world together in one heap all the Gold all the Precious-stones Diamonds Emeralds with all other the richest Jewels all the Triumphs of the Romans all the Dainties of the Assytians c. all would deserve to be of no other value than dirt ignominy and gall if to be possessed with hazard of falling at last into the pit of Hell Let us call to mind that sentence of our blessed Saviour What will it avail a man to gain the whole world if he lose his soul If they should make us Lords and Masters I say not of great wealth but of the whole world we should not admit of it with the least hazard of being damned for ever Let one enjoy all the contents and regalo's imaginable let him be raised up to the highest pitch of honour let him triumph with all the greatness of the world All this is but a dream if after this mortal life he finds himself at length plunged into hell-fire Whosoever should consider the lamentable day in which two Sons and three Daughters and his Wife the Emperess were put to death in presence of the Emperor Mauritius and afterwards himself was bereaved of life by command of a dastardly Coward and vicious fellow no doubt but he would esteem as very vain and of no worth all the twenty years of his Raign in his powerful Empire and Majesty though his punishment was not
corruption and by birth a Slave of the Devil and yet he dares offend his Maker An offence against God were most grievous though from another God if it were possible infinite and equal to himself but that his creature should be so audacious against his omnipotent Lord is beyond amazement But What is that which a sinner does when he offends It is according to St. Anselm an endeavour to pluck the Crown from the head of God and place it upon his own It is according to St. Bernard to desire to murther his God It is according to the Apostle St. Paul to kick and spurn against the Son of God It is to crucifie again the Lord of life If any of these things were attempted against a Majesty upon earth it were enough to make the offenders flesh to be pluckt off with pincers to have him torn in pieces with four horses to pull down his house and sow the place with salt and make his whole Linage infamous If such an offence committed by one man against another betwixt whom the difference is not great being both equal in nature be so hainous what shall it deserve being committed against God the Lord and Creator of all whose immense greatness is infinitely distant from the nature of his creature O good God who is able to explicate what a sinner does against thee and himself he despises thy Majesty razes out thy Law from his heart laughs at thy Justice scorns thy threats despises thy promises makes a solemn renunciation of thy glory thou hast promised him and all to bind himself an eternal slave unto Satan desiring rather to please thine enemy than thee who art his Father his Friend and all his good desiring rather to die eternally by displeasing thee than to enjoy heaven for ever by serving thee Let us now see Where and in What place a sinner presumes to sin and be a Traitor unto his God It is even in his own world in his own house and knowing that his Creator looks upon him he offends him If a sin were committed where God could not see it it were yet an enormous fault but to injury his Creator before his face what an unspeakable impudence If he who sins could go into another world where God did not inhabit and there in secret under the earth should sin after such a manner as onely himself should know it yet it were a temerarious boldness but to sin in his own house which is this world what hell doth it not deserve For a man onely to lay his hand upon his sword in the Palace of a King is capital and deserves death For a sinner then by his sins to spurn and crucifie the Son of God in the house of his Father and before his face what understanding can conceive the greatness of such a malice And therefore David with reason dissolved himself into tears because he had sinned in the presence of God and with a grief which pierced his heart cried out I have done evil before thee Besides this we not onely sin against God in his own house but even in his armes whilest we are upheld by his omnipotency If there were a Son so wicked who whilest he was cherished in his Mothers bosom should strike and buffet her and endeavour to kill her with his poniard every one would think that Child some Devil incarnate How then dares man offend God who sustains preserves and hath redeemed him Certainly that Christian ought to be esteemed worse than a Devil The hainousness of this malice in sin is much augmented by the Helpes which a sinner uses to effect it For he turns those very divine benefits which he hath received from God against him who gave them The sense which men usually have of ingratitude is most apprehensive If to forget a benefit be ingratitude to despise it is an injurie but to use it against the Benefactor I know not how to call it This does he who sins making use of those creatures which God created for his service to offend him and convert his divine benefits into arms against God himself What could we say if a King to honour his Souldier should make him a Knight arm him with his own arms and should girt his sword about him with his own hands and that the Souldier so soon as he was possest of the sword should draw it against the King and murther him This wickedness which seems impossible amongst men is ordinary in man towards God who being honoured so many wayes by his Creator and enriched by so many benefits for as much as in him lies bereaves God of his honour and according to St. Bernard desires to bereave him of his life His understanding which he receiv'd from God he uses in finding out a way to execute his sin with his hands he performs it and with all his power offends him who gave them Besides the impudence of man arrives at that height that he makes God himself assist him to sin This is that which our Lord much complains of when he sayes by his Prophet You made me serve you in your wickedness because God concurring to every action and natural motion of man who without his concurrence could neither move hand nor foot nor tongue man disposing his tongue to murmur and his hand to steal makes use of the concourse of God against God himself Who is so pitiless and inhumane to enforce the Father to assist in the murther of his onely Son compelling the Fathers hand to execute the stroke which is to pierce the heart of his onely begotten Equivalent to this is done by a sinner making God to concurre to an action by which man sinning crucifies again the Son of God What cruelty is this in a sinner who for this onely impiety deserves a thousand deaths But if we shall consider Why man does this it is a circumstance which will amaze us at the malice of sin Why does a sinner give this disgust unto his God Wherefore does he despise his Creator Wherefore is he a Traitor unto the Lord of the World Wherefore does he kick and spurn at Jesus Christ Wherefore does he abhorre his Redeemer Wherefore crucifies he the Son of God What reason hath he for so monstrous a wickedness Is it perchance because the world should not be ruin'd Is it perchance because his salvation stands upon it Is it perhaps to make himself a God Is it perhaps in respect or for love of another God No it is none of these but only for a base and filthy pleasure for a foolish fancy of man because he will and no more O horrid insolence O mad fury of men which without a cause so grievously offend their Creator How is it that the Heavens resolve not into thunderbolts and throw a thousand deaths upon them who do and dare by their sins irritate and offend so good and gracious a God The Manner also of our sinning would astonish any who should seriously consider it It
evil in it self in its own nature For if there were no God or that God were not offended with it yet it were a most abominable and horrid evil the greatest of all evils and the cause of all In regard of this deformity and filthiness of sin the Philosophers judged it to be abhorred above all things Aristotle said Aristotle 3. Eth. it were better to die than to do any thing against the good of vertue And Seneca and Peregrinus with more resolution said Although I were certain that men should not know it and that God would pardon it yet I would not offend for the very filthiness of sin For this Tully said That nothing could happen unto man more horrible than a fault And even those Philosophers who denied the immortality of the Soul and the providence of God affirmed that nothing should make us to commit it And there hath not wanted some Gentils who have suffered great extremities to avoid a vicious act Plut. in Demetrio Democles as Plutarch writes chose rather to be boiled in scalding water than to consent to a filthy act With reason Hippo is celebrated amongst the Greek Matrons who chose rather to die than offend Neither was that horror less which Verturius conceived against uncleanness who suffered prison whips and rigorous torments rather than he would sin against chastity Equal to this was that of the most beautiful youth Espurina of whom Valerius Maximus and St. Ambrose write Ambl. l. 3. de Virg. That he slashed and wounded his fair face that it should not give occasion to others of offence even by desire All those were Gentils who knew not Christ crucified for man nor saw hell open for the punishment of sinners nor fled from sin because it was an offence unto God but only for the enormity and filthiness it had in it self This made them endure prisons and tortures rather than admit it What then should Christians do who know their Redeemer died to the end they should not sin and how much sin is offensive to God Certainly they ought rather to give a thousand lives and souls than once to injure their Creator by committing an offence which not onely Gentils but even Nature hath in horror which hath planted in brute beasts although they cannot sin yet a natural aversion from that which looks like sin John Marquess of Gratis desired much to have a Foal from a generous Mare which he had by her own Son but could never effect it neither would she ever admit him until deceived by cloathing him in such sort as she knew him not But when he was uncloathed and she discovered the deceit she fell into that sorrow and sadness that after she would never feed but pined her self to death The like is reported by Jovianus Pontanus of a delicate Bitch of his which he could never although he caused her to be held make to couple with her Son So foul and horrible is but the shadow and image of sin even unto brute beasts Why should not men then who are capable of reason and have an obligation unto Gods commandments say and think with St. Anselm Lib. de simil c. 19. If I should see on this part the filthiness of sin and on the other the terrour of hell and it were necessary for me to fall into one of them I would rather cast my self into hell than admit of sin For I had rather enter pure into Hell than to enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven contaminated with sin Whosoever than he be who is infected with that horrible evil of a mortal sin he cannot choose but be most miserable and wretched For as St. Chrysostome sayes Chrysost Tom. 5. Ser. 5. de ie The greatest evil is to be evil And although the Chirurgion do not cut the cankered flesh yet the ulcerated Patient will not be freed from his infirmity So although God should not punish a Sinner yet he would not be free from the evil death misery and abomination of sin And therefore St. Austin sayes Aug. To. 8. in Ps 49. Although we could cause that the day of Judgement should not come yet we ought not to live ill This monstrous deformity of sin our Lord was pleased to express by a visible Monster and that after a most strange manner as is related by Villaveus He writes Villaveus lib. 8. c. 35. that in the year 1298. Cassanus King of the Tartars with an Army of 200000 horse entring Syria made himself Master of it and brought a great terror upon all those neighbouring Countries in so much as the King of Armenia delivered him his Daughter although she were a Christian and he an Infidel to be his Wife Not long after the Queen proved with child and when her time came was delivered not of a Child but of a most horrible and deformed Monster Whereat the barbarous King being astonisht and incensed by the advise of his Council commanded that she should be put to death as an Adulteress The poor Lady grieving to die with the imputation of a sin whereof she was innocent commended her self to our Saviour and by divine inspiration desired that before her death the Thing which she had brought forth might be baptized which was granted and no sooner performed but that Monster became a most beautiful and goodly Boy and the King amazed at the miracle with many other of his Subjects became Christian acknowledging by what had happened the beauty of Grace and the deformity of Sin although that deformity proceeded not from any actual sin either mortal or venial from which the Child was free but onely from Original guilt which without the fault of his proper will descended unto him from his Parents The deformity of sin comes from the contrariety of it to reason which renders a Sinner more foul and ugly than the most horrid Monster and more dead in soul than a putrid and dead Carcase Pliny admires the force of lightning which melts the gold and silver and leaves the Purse which contained it untoucht Such is sin which kills the Soul and leaves the Body sound and entire It is a flash of lightning sent from Hell and worse than Hell it self and such leaves the Soul which it hath blasted What shall I then say of the evils which it causes I will onely say this that though it were the best thing of the world yet for the evil effects which it produces it ought to be avoided more then death It bereaves the soul of grace banishes the holy Ghost deprives it of the right of heaven despoiles man of all his merits makes him unworthy of divine protection and condemns a sinner unto eternal torments in the other world and in this to many disasters for there is neither plague warre famine nor infirmity of body whereof sin hath not been in some sort the occasion and therefore those who weep for their afflictions let them change the object of their tears and weep for the
to obtain it If thou shalt therefore fall into such a poverty as thou hast nothing to sustain thee if it conduce to thy salvation think thy self the happiest man in the world and embrace it with a hundred hands for as all things which hinder us from our end are to be contemned so whatsoever helps us to the obtaining of it although it be grief pain or death it self is to be esteemed above all value So great a matter it is to be a means of thy salvation that Christ our Lord who is the beginning and end of all things disdained it not himself incarnating dying and remaining for that end in the most blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood And if it cost the Son of God so dear to be a means of thy salvation do not thou stick at any thing how horrible soever it appear to humane nature that may advance and secure it but esteem it as a Paradise though it be infamy shame or dishonor Thou travellest towards Heaven that 's the end of thy journey Make thy voyage secure whatsoever it cost thee He who goes for the Indies if he may embark bark in a strong and well-rigged Vessel will not make choice of that which is rotten and worm-eaten Take the certainest way for Heaven and believe me there is none more ready then that of the Cross of Christ his Humility and Mortification In all things thou desirest still the best for thy self Know there is nothing better or more imports thee than a good life Make it then a good one and content not thy self with this which thou now livest if thou canst make it better and no way more ready available to improve it than by imitating the life of thy Redeemer to despise all that is Temporal This is the most proper and certain way of obtaining the Eternal whereunto thou art to aspire and for which thou were born Have still thy end before thine eyes for thou errest so often as thou doest not behold it and canst not erre without great danger St. Greg. Isid Clar. Many compare this life unto a high and narrow Bridge so narrow that it is scarce broad enough for our feet and if we fall we precipitate into a filthy Lake where Serpents and Dragons wait to devour us And who being to pass such a Bridge in an obscure and dark night having no other guide to direct him but a little light placed in the end of the Bridge durst for one instant remove his eyes from it In the like condition are we This life is a straight Bridge over which we are to pass in the night and darkness of this world We cannot come off safely in this dangerous passage without still looking at our end and at that divine light which enlightens our Souls Let not our eyes wander from it lest we fall into that Gulph and perish for all eternity This perdition David signified in the Title which he gave unto his 13. Psalm which he calls For the End where he sayes That those who look not upon God as their utmost End making no more account of him than if he were not That such became abominable and corrupted in their intentions That there was not one amongst them who did well That all became vain and unprofitable and failed in their thoughts words and actions That their mouths were as pestilential as an open sepulcher which none could endure for the stench of worms and corruption That the poison of Asps was in their lips and deceit and bitterness in their mouths That all their wayes were wickedness and That therefore their feet ran swiftly to shed blood That their hearts were full of fearful imaginations and That they trembled where there was nothing to fear finally That all their courses were nothing but ruine and unhappiness That they did not invoke and pray unto the Lord That they knew not the wayes of peace That the fear of God was not before their eyes All this which David deciphers happened as he saith unto this wicked people because they had not God in their hearts nor did propose him as the end of their actions And truly from this defect springs all that is evil For without God there is neither quiet peace nor vertue for true peace consists in seeking nothing but God and for God In this consists the liberty of the sons of God the contempt of the World the tranquility of the Minde and the conformity with the Will of God And most certainly the foundation of all vertue is to know that we are born for nothing but the service of God and so forget it as the wicked do is as David sayes a certain kind of Atheism making us live as if there were no God in looseness of manners without prayer and without the quiet and repose of the Soul To these three heads the Prophet reduces the disorders of those who think not of their chief End nor remember that there is a God And therefore he who to the contrary shall still fix his thoughts upon that whereunto he is ordained shall be endued with vertuous Customs fervour and frequency of prayer and possess the quiet and peace of minde For as the Iron touched by the Loadstone rests not until it respect the North no more shall a heart ever enjoy repose but in beholding his chief and utmost End which is God CAP. II. By the knowledge of our selves way be known the use of things Temporal and the little esteem we are to wake of them BEfore we pass further I must here advertise you of a point of great importance which is that for the right use of things the knowledge of the things themselves and the end whereunto they serve is not sufficient but there is required also a knowledge of the person who is to use them It is not enough for the wise Physician to know the use and property of his Medicaments unless he know the nature and quality of his Patient his temper strength age and other circumstances that according to them he may administer his Remedies And therefore having shewn the End of man to be eternal and that the things of this world are onely to be used as means to obtain it we shall now for the compleating of this matter speak something of the estate and quality of Man as he now is that he may thereby know what use of things temporal is most convenient for him Humane nature is at the present in a far different condition from that wherein it was when God at first created man and placed him in Paradise so as a farr different use of things temporal from that which was then lawful and convenient is now to be required And therefore it is fit that we know what Man is that we may acertain the use of Man and the things of Man which cannot be done without the knowledge of what he is in general and also that every one know what he himself is in particular
miserie that he may be heard of his God And certainly for him who is in the condition of a penitent and to demand mercy it is not seemly to use superfluities to imploy himself in vanities to take delight in the world enjoy the Creatures and seek after greatness And although it were lawful in the integrity of nature when man was free from the corruption of sin to use the Creatures with more libertie yet being now fallen it is no wayes tolerable but let him look upon himself as one guilty who hath offended his God and is in fine a miserable man The Philosophers who considered nature not as it was by sin but as it ought to be in it self measured there vertues by that rule and therefore knew not the vertue of humility nor used that of penance And the vertues of Magnanimity Constancy and Magnificence they extended so far that many actions which the Stoicks and Peripateticks called vertuous may be esteemed vicious But the horribleness of sin and the weakness of humane nature being now discovered the estate of things is changed and humilitie ought still to reign both in our souls and bodies and many acts of other vertues esteemed by them are to be corrected We are to choose different Mediums for the advancing our End from those of the Philosophers both because the ends we aym at are not the same and because we know our selves to be in a far other condition then they imagined The End proposed by the Philosophers was meerly natural to wit the Happiness and felicity of this life The estate of humane nature they conceived to be free and uncontaminated by sin and that it had suffcient force of it self to do good In all this they were deceived and it is not therefore strange if for the obtaining of their ends they taught wayes distinct from those of Christians who know their end to be supernatural to wit the happiness not of this but of the other life who know also their estate of nature not to be free and entire as it was at first but corrupted and defaced by sin and that of it self it hath neither force nor efficacy to execute any thing that is good unless assisted by the grace and mercy of God It is therefore no marvail if Chrisitians who know themselves their end and condition make use of such Vetues and Mediums as the Philosophers knew not Neither is it much that the Philosophers took some vertuous acts for vices since they mistook many vices for vertues Aristotle the Prince of natural and moral Philosophers knew not Humility voluntary Povertie and Penance to be vertues but rather condemned the last to be a kind of insensibility and one of those vices contrary to the vertue of temperance The Stoicks also held Pity and Commiseration for a vice But since the Gospel of Christ these are become the most necessary and recommended vertues and the most apt and ready means for the obtaining of our salvation These three vertues in which consists the contempt of all things temporal Aristotle knew not because he knew not himself By Humilitie Honours are despised by Poverty Riches and by Penance the Pleasures and Regaloes of the world And therefore he who will make the right and profitable use of things temporal for the gaining of eternity must as a sinner humble himself and do penance must not employ himself and the time of his life in gathering and heaping up riches which are so farre from being goods that to innumerable persons they have shut up the gates of the true and real goods which are onely the eternal unto which we are wholly to aspire not trusting in our own forces but in the mercy and passion of Jesus Christ CAP. III. The value of goods eternal is made apparent unto us by the Incarnation of the Son of God BUt above all which hath been said the incomparable difference betwixt things Temporal and Eternal is made most apparent unto us by the Incarnation and passion of Jesus Christ The gaining of eternity is a matter of so high concernement that the Son of God to the end we might obtain it was incarnate and made man and that we might despise things temporal is also of so great importance that for it it was convenient that Christ our Redeemer should suffer and die I know not what can raise in us a higher conception of the greatness of the one and baseness of the other then these high and stupendious acts of God Almighty And therefore though briefly we will say something of them both beginning with that admirable and great mystery of the Incarnation Great is all that which is eternal and so much imports us that rather than we should lose it God wrought a work of that height and love as amazed the Angels In which we will consider four things The greatness of the work The manner of putting it in execution The evils from which it frees us and The good we gain by it For the first which is the Greatness of the work we are to suppose the estate of man as he then stood which was the most miserable infamous and wretched condition that could be imagined He was become a slave so the Devil polluted with sin condemned unto eternal punnishment enemy to God and without hope of remedy For even the highest Seraphins could not imagin that without prejudice to the Justice of God it was possible for man to be redeemed from that miserable and ignominious estate For although all the men in the world should suffer a thousand deaths and all the orders of holy Angels in heaven should offer themselves in sacrifice and should suffer eternal torments in hell all would not satisfy for one mortal sin All created remedies were then impossible and although God should have created some more excellent and holy creature than the most high Seraphins yet that and they were insufficient to appease the divine justice incensed against man what remedy then where none was to be had what hope when all was despaire Certainly from what was or could be created it was impossible and from the Creator it was not known to be possible and if it was known to be possible who could hope that the offended party ty should satisfie for the offence committed against himself that the Creditor should pay what the debtor ought What hope then of remedy when all hope failed both from Heaven and Earth The onely remedy and that onely known to God was that God without prejudice to his justice might cover man with his mercy but that much to the cost of God himself and the greatest work whereunto his power and wisdome could extend But who could think he would imploy so great a work for his Enemy that he would let up the rest of his omnipotency for him who was a Traytor to his Lord Onely this way remained for God to make himself man the most great and stupendious work possible or imaginable But who could believe
he is issues forth of himself and is communicated unto man Who is not amazed that the same Divinity which the eternal Father communicates unto the eternal Word who is God as he is should after an admirable manner be communicated unto human nature which was enemy unto him O Sea of divine goodness that thus powrest forth thy self to do good without regarding unto whom O Ocean of bounty that thus overflowest in benefits even towards thine enemies This work is likewise infinitly good because with goodness it overcoms an infinitly malice and frees him who was so evil that he deserved an infinit punishment It is infinitly good because it sets forth God with an infinit desire to pardon and do good even unto the greatest Traytour and who least deserved it It shewes him also infinitly good and compleat in all vertue and perfection that rather then to fail the least jot in his Justice he would take upon him that which was due unto a most unjust and accursed offender and humbled himself unto death that he who was condemned to die should not perish eternally I know not any thing that can set forth God as a more exact and perfect pattern of all vertue then a work of so much Justice and Mercy Who would not be amazed at the goodness and piety of a great Emperour who having a desire to pardon a notorious Traytour should rather then abate one jot of his inflexible justice take upon him the habit and shape of that Traytour and die publiqnely in the market place that the offender might be spared This did God taking upon him the form of a Servant and dying upon the Cross to free condemned man from eternal death O God every way most perfect and good which art so scrupulous in thy justice and so indulgent in thy mercy rigorous with thy self that thou mightest be merciful with us O God infinitly good infinitly holy infinitely exact and perfect in all Let the Angels praise thee for all thy perfections since all are transcendent and infinitely good §. 3. To this maybe added the excellent Manner by which a work every way so excellently good was performed and with what love and desire of thy benefit it was wrought From whence could a work of so much goodness issue but from a furnace of love in the divine brest And if by the effect we may know the cause that love which made God resolve upon a work so admirable strange and high could not be other then immense in it self for since the work was infinitly good it could not proceed but from an infinite love nor that love but from an infinite being Besides this it was a great prerogative and honour to humane nature that God should rather make himself a man than an Angel With being an Angel he might have freed Man and honoured the Angels communicated his divine goodness unto the Creatures and done a work of infinite bounty and favour This notwithstanding he was so passionate a lover of man and if I may so say so fond of humane nature that he would not onely oblige man by redeeming him but in the manner of his redemption he would not only that Man should be redeemed but that he should be redeemed by a Man and so would not onely give the remedy but conferre also the honour upon our nature Neither was he content in honouring man more than Angels but would redeem him and not the Angels This was a demonstration of his affection unto Man beyond all expression that not pardoning the Angels who were of a more excellent and supream being then ours he yet took pitie of us and not of them and would do that for us which he did not for them Unto this add that when Man sinned and the whole stock of mankind was ruin'd there remained no just man to commiserate and intercede for him But when the Angels fell there remained thousands rightious who might pitie those of their own nature and be sensible of their loss and yet he would do this for Man and not for Angels The time also when this great work of mercy was put in execution shews not a little the sweetness of God Almighty to our nature It was in a time when mankind was most forgetful of God when men strove to make themselves adored for Gods and those who could not attain unto it themselves adored other men worse then devils Then did God think of making himself Man and for Man who would make himself God This was a love indeed to do most for us then when we most offended him But let us see what good we received by this great work Certainly if we had received no good at all it was much to free us from those evils whereunto we were plunged to deliver us from the ignominy of Sin from the slavery of the Devil and from the horrour of Hell To free us from these evils without any other benefit might be held an infinite good And though there had been no evils to be freed from nor goods to be bestowed upon us yet the honour which our nature received in having God to become one of us was an incomparable blessing But joyning to this honour our deliverance from those horrid and desperate evils what happiness may be compared to ours Justin writes that Alexander the Great beholding Lysimachus wounded in the head and that he lost much blood took his Diadem and bound it about his temples to stay his bleeding This was a great favour from so mighty a Prince as well in the care he took of him as in the manner taking the Ensigne of Majesty from his own head and giving it to his vassal But Lysimachus had not injuried Alexander he had served him faithfully and received that wound in his quarrel Neither did Alexander give him his Diadem for ever but suffer'd him onely to wear it upon that present occasion But the mortal wound of sin was not received by man in defence of God or in his quarrel but in rebellion against him Yet God vouchsafes to cure the Traytor honors him with his own Diadem which is his Divinitie communicating it upon him not for a short space and then to take it from him but bâ—stowing it upon him for all eternity What a bounty is this unto an enemy that in freeing him from such a miserie crowns him with so great happiness But if to all this we shall add those other blessings which he bestows upon us giving us his grace adopting us the Sons of God and making us Heirs of heaven how infinitly will our obligations increase since we are not onely freed from so great evils but enriched with unspeakable benefits and our nature honoured by his favours above that of Angels All is marvailous all is great all is transcendent in this unspeakable goodness The work it self is transcendent the manner and love by which it was performed is transcendent The evils from which it frees us are eternal the rewards which
it prepares for us are eternal whose greatness though it were not otherwise to be known might in this sufficiently appear that to free us from so many evils and crown us with so many goods it was necessary that he who was eternal should make himself temporal and should execute this great and stupendious work so much to his own loss CAP. IV. The baseness of Temporal goods may likewise appear by the Passion and Death of Christ Jesus THe greatness of eternal goods and evils is by the Incarnation of the Son of God made more apparent unto us then the Sun beams since for the freeing us from the one and gaining for us the other it was necessary so great a work should be performed and that God judged not his whole omnipotency ill imployed that man might gain eternity Yet doth not this great work so forcibly demonstrate unto us the baseness of things temporal and the contempt which is due unto them as the Passion and Death of the Son of God which was another work of his love an other excess of his affection another tenderness of our Creator and a most high expression of his good will towards us wherein we shall see how worthy to be despised are all the goods of the Earth since to the end we might contemn them the Son of God would not onely deprive himself of them but to the contrary embraced all the evils and incommodities this life was capable of Behold then how the Saviour of the world disesteemed temporal things since he calls the best of them and those which men most covet but thorns and to the contrary that which the world most hates and abhorrs he qualifies with the name of blessings favouring so much the Poor who want all things that he calls them blessed and sayes Of them is the Kingdom of heaven And of the Rich who enjoy the goods of the earth he sayes It is harder for them to enter into heaven then for a Camel to pass the eye of a needle And to perswade us yet more he not onely in words but in actions chose the afflictions and despised the prosperity of this life and to that end would suffer in all things as much as could be suffered In honour by being reputed infamous In riches by being despoyled of all even to his proper garments In his pleasures by being a spectacle of sorrow and afflicted in each particular part of his most sacred body This we ought to consider seriously that we may imitate him in that contempt of all things temporal which he principally exprest in his bitter death and passion This he would have us still to keep in memory as conducing much to our spiritual profit as an example which he left us and as a testimony of the love he bore us leaving his life for us and dying for us a publick death full of so many deaths and torments Zcnophon in Cyro lib. 3. Tigranes King of Armenia together with his Queen being prisoners unto Cyrus and one day admited to dine with him Cyrus demanded of Tigranes What he would give for the liberty of his wife to whom Tigranes answered That he would not onely give his Kingdom but his life and blood The woman not long after requited this expression of her husband For being both restored to their former condition One demanded of the Queene What she thought of the Majesty and Greatness of Cyrus to whom she answered Certainly I thought not on him nor fixt mine eyes on any but him who valued me so much as he doubted not to give his life for my ransom If this Lady were so grateful onely for the expression of her husbands affections that she looked upon nothing but him and neither admired nor desired the greatness of the Persians What ought the Spouse of Christ to do who not onely sees the love and affection of the King of Heaven but his deeds not his willingness to die but his actual dying a most horrid and cruel death for her ransom and redemption Certainly she ought not to place her eyes or thoughts upon any thing but Christ crucified for her Sabinus also extolls the loyalty and love of Vlysses to his Wife Penelope in regard that Circe and Calypso promising him immortality upon condition that he should forget Penelope and remain with them he utterly refused it not to be wanting to the love and affection he owed unto his Spouse who did also repay it him with great love and affection Let a Soul consider what great love and duty it owes to its Spouse Christ Jesus who being immortal did not onely become mortal but died also a most ignominious death Let us consider whether it be reasonable it should forget such an excessive love and whether it be fit it should ever be not remembring the same and not thankful for all eternity hazarding to lose the fruits of the passion of its Redeemer and Spouse Christ Jesus Upon this let thy Soul meditate day and night and the spiritual benefits which she will reap from thence will be innumerable Albertus Magnus used to say Lud. de Ponte P. 4. in introduc That the Soul profited more by one holy thought of the Passion of Christ than by reciting every day the whole Psalter by fasting all the year in bread and water or chastizing the Body even to the effusion of blood One day amongst others when Christ appeared unto St. Gertrude to confirm her in that devotion she had to his Passion he said unto her behold Daughter if in a few hours which I hung upon the Cross I so enobled it that the whole world hath ever since had it in reverence how shall I exalt that Soul in whose heart and memory I have continued many years Certainly it cannot be exprest what favour devout Souls obtain from Heaven in thinking often upon God and those pains by which he gained tor us eternal blessings and taught us to despise things temporal and transitory But that we may yet reap more profit by the holy remembrance of our Saviours passion we are to consider that Christ took upon him all our sins and being to satisfy the Father for them would do it by the way of suffering for which it was convenient that there should be a proportion betwixt the greatness of his pains and the greatness of our sins And certainly as our sins were without bound or limit so the pains of his torments were above all comparison shewing us by the greatness of those injuries he received in his passion the greatness of those injuries we did unto God by our inordinate pleasures We may also gather by the greatness of those pains and torments which were inflicted upon him by the Jews and Hangmen the greatness of those which he inflicted upon himself for certainly those pains which he took upon himself were not inferior to those he received from others But who can explicate the pains which our Saviour wounded by the grief he conceived at
1. Tertullian said The greatness of some goods were intolerable the which according to the Prophet Isaias is verified in this Divine good and benefit which we were not able to support Wherefore it is called in holy Scripture The good or the good thing of God because it is a good and a benefit which more clearly than the Sun discovers the infinite and ineffable goodness of God to the astonishment and amazement of a humane heart and therefore the Prophet Oseas sayes Osee 3. They shall be astonished at the Lord and at his Good because his Divine benefit amazes and astonishes the Soul of man to see how good the Lord is and how great the good which he communicates unto us All which tends to no other end than to make us despise the goods of the Earth and to esteem onely those of Heaven which we attain unto by this Divine mysterie For this therefore did Christ our Redeemer institute this most blessed Sacrament that by it we might withdraw our hearts from things temporal and settle our affections upon those which are eternal for which it is most particularly efficacious as those who worthily receive it have full experience §. 3. Wherefore let that Soul who goes to communicate consider Who it is that enters into him and Who he is himself who entertains so great a Guest Let him call to mind with what reverence the blessed Virgin received the Eternal Word when he entred into her holy Womb and let him know it is the same Word which a Christian receives into his entrails in this Divine Sacrament Let him therefore endeavour to approach this holy Table with all reverence love and gratitude which ought if possible to be greater than that of the blessed Mother For then the obligation of Mankind was not so great as now it is For neither she nor we were then indebted unto him for his dying upon the Cross Let him consider that he receives the same Christ who sits at the right hand of God the Father That it is he who is the supreme Lord of Heaven and Earth He whom the Angels adore He who created and redeemed us and is to judge the living and the dead He who is of infinite wisdom power beauty and goodness If a Soul should behold him as when St. Paul beheld him and was struck blind with his light and splendour how would he fear and reverence him Let him know that he is not now less glorious in the Host and that he is to approach him with as much reverence as if he saw him in his Throne of glory With much reason did St. Teresa of Jesus say unto a devout Soul unto whom she appeared after death That we upon earth ought to behave our selves unto the blessed Sacrament as the blessed in Heaven do towards the Divine Essence loving and adoring it with all our power and forces Consider also that he who comes in person to thee is that self same Lord that required so much reverence that he struck Oza dead because he did but touch with his hand the Ark of his Testament and slew 50000 Bethshamits for their looking on it And thou not onely seest and touchest but receivest him into thy very bowells See then with what reverence thou oughtest to approach him The Angels and Seraphins tremble before his greatness and the Just are afraid Do thou then tremble fear and adore him S. John standing but near unto an Angel remained without force astonisht at the greatness of his Beauty and Majesty and thou art not to receive an Angel but the Lord of Angels into thy entrails It adds much to the endearment of this great benefit of our Saviour that it is not onely great by the greatness of that which is bestowed but by the meaneness of him who receives it For what art thou but a most vile creature composed of clay and dirt full of misery ignorance weakness and malice If the Centurion held himself unworthy to receive Christ under his roof and St. Peter when our Saviour was in this mortal life deemed himself not worthy to be in his presence saying Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful man and St. John Baptist thought himself not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe How much more oughtest thou to judge thy self unworthy to receive him into thy bowels being now in his glory seated at the right hand of God the Father The Angels in heaven are not pure in his sight What purity shouldest thou have to entertain him in thy breast If a mighty King should visit a poor Beggar in his Cottage what honour what respects would it conferre upon him Behold God who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords comes to visit thee not in thy house but within thy self Seaven years did Salomon spend in building a Temple wherein to place the Ark of the Testament Why doest thou not spend some time in making thy self a Temple of God himself Noah was a hundred years in preparing a Vessel wherein to save those who were to escape the Deluge Why doest thou not spare some dayes or hours to make thy self a Sacristy for the Saviour of the World Behold thy own unworthiness and what thou goest a-about Moyses when he was to make an Ark for the Tables of the Law not onely made choice of precious wood but covered it all with gold Thou miserable and vile Worm why doest thou not prepare and adorn thy self to receive the Lord of the Law Consider also what is the end for which thy Saviour comes unto thee It is by communicating his grace to make thee partaker of his Divinity He comes to cure thy sores and infirmities he comes to give remedy to thy necessities he comes to unite himself unto thee he comes to Deifie thee Behold then the infinity of his Divine goodness who thus melts himself in communication with his Creatures Behold what is here given thee and for what it is given thee God gives himself unto thee that thou mayest be all divine and nothing left in thee of earth In other benefits God bestows his particular gifts upon thee but here he gives thee himself that thou mightest also give thy self unto him and be wholly his If from the Incarnation of the Son of God we gather the great love he bore unto mankind passing for his sake from that height of greatness unto that depth of humiliation as to inclose himself in the Womb of a Virgin Behold how in this he loves thee since to sustain thee in the life of grace he hath made himself the true food of thy Soul and comes from the right hand of the eternal Father to enclose himself in thy most impure breast Jesus Christ comes also to make thee one body with himself that thou mayest after an admirable manner be united unto him and made partaker not onely of his spirit but of his bloud That which this Consideration ought to work in the breast of a
the place whither he is to goe How comest thou then to forget death whither thou travellest with speed and canst not though thou desirest rest one small minute by the way For time although against thy will will draw thee along with it The way of this life is not voluntary like that of Travellers but necessary like that of condemned persons from the prison unto the place of execution To death thou standest condemned whither thou art now going how canst thou laugh A Malefactor after sentence past is so surprised with the apprehension of death that he thinks of nothing but dying We are all condemned to die how come we then to rejoyce in those things which we are to leave so sodainly Who being led to the Gallows could please himself in some little flower that was given him by the way or play with the Halter which was shortly to strangle him Since then all of us even from the instant we issue out of our Mothers wombs walk condemned unto death and know not whether we shall from thence pass into hell at least we may how come we to please our selves with the flower or to say better with the hay of some short gust of our appetites since according to the Prophet all the glory of the flesh is no more than a little hay which quickly withers How come we to delight in riches which oftentimes hasten our deaths Why consider we not this when we are certain that all that we do in this life is vanity except our preparation for death In death when as there is no time nor remedy left us we shall too late perceive this truth when as all the goods of this life shall leave us by necessity which we will not now leave with merit Death is a general privation of all goods temporal an universal Pillager of all things which even despoils the body of the soul For this it is compared unto a Theef who not onely robs us of our treasure and substance but bereaves us of our lives Since therefore thou art to leave all Why doest thou load thy self in vain What Merchant knowing that so soon as he arrived unto the Ports his Ship and Goods should both be sunk would charge his Vessel with much Merchandise Arriving at death thou and all thou hast are to sink and perish why doest thou then burthen thy self with that which is not needful but rather a hinderance to thy salvation How many forbearing to throw their Goods over-board in some great Tempest have therefore both themselves and Goods been swallowed by the raging Sea How many who out of a wicked love to these Temporal riches have lost themselves in the hour of death and will not then leave their wealth when their wealth leaves them but even at that time busie their thoughts more about it than their Salvation Whereupon St. Gregory sayes That is never lost without grief which is possest with love Humbert in tract de Septemp timore Vmbertus writes of a certain man of great wealth who falling desperately sick and Plate of gold and silver to be brought before him and in this manner spake unto his Soul My Soul all this I promise thee and thou shalt enjoy it all if thou wilt not now leave my Body and greater things I will bestow upon thee rich Possessions and sumptuous Houses upon condition thou wilt yet stay with me But finding his infirmity still to encrease and no hope left of life in a great rage and fury he fell into these desperate speeches But since thou wilt not do what I desire thee nor abide with me I recommend thee unto the Devil and immediately with these words miserably expired In this story may be seen the vanity of Temporal things and the hurt he receives by them who possesses them with too much affection What greater vanity then not to profit us in a passage of the greatest necessity and importance and what greater hurt then when they cannot avail our bodies to prejudice our souls That they put an impediment to our salvation when our affections are too much set upon them were a sufficient motive not onely to contemn them but also to detest them Robertus de Licio writes that whilest he advised a sick person to make his Confession and take care of his Soul his Servants and other Domesticks went up and down the house laying hold every one of what they could the sick man taking notice of it and attending more to what They stole from him than to what He spake to him about the salvation of his Soul made deep sighs and cried out saying Wo be to me Wo be to me who have taken so much pains to gather riches and now am compelled to leave them and they snatch them from me violently before my eyes O my Riches O my Moneys O my Jewels into whose possession are you to fall and in these cries he gave up the ghost making no more account of his Soul than if he had been a Turk Vincentius Veluacensis relates also of one Vincen. in spec moral who having lent four pounds of money upon condition that at four years end they should pay him twelve he being in state of death a Priest went to him and exhorted him to confess his sins but could get no other words from the sick person than these Such a one is to pay me twelve pounds for four and having said this died immediately Much what to this purpose is a Story related by St. Bernardin of a certain Confessarius who earnestly perswading a rich man at the time of his death to a confession could get no other words from him but How sells Wool What price bears it at present and as the Priest spake unto him Sir for Gods sake leave off this discourse and have a care of your Soul the Sick man still persevered to inform himself of such things he might hope to gain by asking him Father when will the Ships come are they yet arrived for his thoughts were so wholly taken up with matters of gain and this world that he could neither speak nor think of any thing but what tended to his profit But die Priest still urging him to look to his Soul and confess all he could get from him was I cannot and in this manner died without confession This is the Salary which the goods of the earth bestow on those who serve them that if they do not leave or ruine them before their death they are then certain at least to leave them and often hazard the salvation of those that dote upon them O foolish Sons of Adam this short life Is bestowed upon us for gaining the goods of heaven which are to last eternally and we spend it in seeking those of the earth which are to perish instantly Wherefore do we not employ this short time for the purchasing eternal glory since we are to possess no more hereafter than what we provide for here Wherefore do we not
his Divine justice Then all shall be laid open and confusion shall cover the sinner with the multitude of his offences How shall he blush to see himself in the presence of the King of Heaven in so foul and squalid garments A man is said to remain confounded when either the issue of things fall out contrary to what he hoped and looked for or when he comes off with indignity or disparagement where he expected honour and reward how confounded then shall a sinner be when those works of his which he thought vertues shall be found vices imagining he hath done service shall perceive he hath offended and hoping for a reward shall meet with punishment If a man when he is to speak with some great Prince desire to be decently and well clad how will he be out of countenance to appear before him dirty and half naked How shall then a sinner be ashamed to see himself before the Lord of all naked of good works be dirtied and defiled with abominable and horrid crimes for besides the Multitude of sins whereof his whole life shall be full the Hainousness of them shall be also laid open before him and he shall tremble at the sight of that which he now thinks but a trivial fault For then shall he see clearly the ugliness of sin the dissonancy of it unto reason the deformity it causes in the Soul the injury it does unto the Lord of the world his ingratitude to the blood of Christ the prejudice it brings unto himself hell into which he falls and eternal glory which he loses The least of these were sufficient to cover his heart with sadness and inconsolable grief but altogether what amazement and confusion shall they cause especially when he shall perceive that not only mortal but even venial sins produce an ugliness in the Soul beyond all the corporal deformities which can be imagined If the sight of onely one Devil be so horrible that many Servants of God have said that they would rather suffer all the torments of this life than behold him for one moment all his deformity proceeding but from one onely mortal sin which he committed for before the Devils were by nature most excellent and beautiful in what condition shall a sinner be who shall not only behold all Devils in all their ugliness but shall see himself perhaps more ugly than many of them having as many deformities as he hath committed mortal and venial sins Let him therefore avoid them now for all are to come to light and he must account for all even until the last farthing Neither is this account to be made in gross onely for the greatest and most apparent sins but even for the least and smallest What Lord is so strict with his Steward that he demands an account for trifles for the tagg of a point nor suffers him to pass a half-penny without informing him how it was spent In humane Tribunals the Judge takes no notice of small matters but in the Courts of Divine Judicature nothing passes the least things are as diligently lookt into as the greater A confirmation of this is a story written by divers Authors Joh. Major Judic exem 8. ex collec That there were two Religious persons of holy and laudable conversation who did mutually love one another with great affection one of them chanced to die and after death appeared unto the other being then in prayer in poor and torn garments and with a most sorrowful and dejected countenance he who was alive demanded of him what was the cause of his appearing in that sad manner to whom he answered repeating it three times No man will believe No man will believe No man will believe Being urged to declare further what he would say he proceeded thus No man can imagine how strict God is in taking his accompts and with what rigour he chastises sinners In saying this he vanished By that which hath happened to many Servants of God even before their departure out of this life may be seen the rigour with which this account shall be taken after death Climac gr 7. St. John Climacus writes of a certain Monk who being very desirous to live in solitude and quiet after he had exercised himself many years in the labours of a Monastical life and obtained the grace of tears and fasting with many other priviledges of vertue he built a Cell at the foot of that Mountain where Elias in time past saw that sacred and divine Vision This reverend Father being of so great austerity desired yet to live a more strict and penitent life and therefore passed from thence into a place called Sides which belonged to the Anchorite Monks who live in great perfection and retirement and having lived a long time with much rigour in that place which was far remote from all humane consolation and distant 70 miles from any dwelling or habitation of men at last he came to have a desire to return to his first Cell in that sacred Mountain where remained in his absence for the keeping of it two most religious Disciples of his of the land of Palestine Some short time after his return he fell into an infirmity and died The day before his death sodainly he became much astonished and amazed and keeping still his eyes open he lookt gastly about him sometime on the one side of the Bed and then on the other as if he saw some who demanded an accompt from him of something which was past unto whom he answered in the hearing of all who were present saying sometime So it is truly but for this I have fasted so many years Other-whiles he said Certainly it is not so thou lyest I never did it At other times It is true I did so but wept for it and so many times ministred for it unto the necessity of my neighbour Other times Thou accusest me truly I have nothing to say but God is merciful And certainly that invisible and strict inquisition was fearful and horrible unto those who were present Ay miserable me saith the Saint What will become of me sinner since so great a follower of a solitary and retired life knew not what to answer He who had lived forty years a Monk and obtained the grace of tears and as some affirmed unto me had in the Desert fed a hungry Leopard which meekly repaired unto him for food yet for all this sanctity at his departure out of this life so strict an accompt was demanded of him as he left us uncertain what was his judgement and what the sentence and determination of his cause We read in the Chronicles of the Minorites Chronic. S. Franc. 2. p. lib. 4. c. 35. that a Novice of the Order of St. Francis being now almost out of himself struggling with death cryed out with a terrible voice saying Wo is me O that I never had been born A little after he said I am heartily sorry And not long after he replyed Put
something of the merits of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Then he said Now 't is well The Religious much admired that a young man so innocent should speak things so dreadful and with such a strange noise When the young man was returned to his senses they demanded of him to declare unto them the meaning of those words and great cryes He answered them I saw that in the Judgement of Almighty God so strict an accompt was taken even of idle words and other things that seemed very little and they weighed them so exactly that the merits in respect of the demerits were almost nothing at all And for this reason I gave that first terrible and sad outcry Afterwards I saw that the demerits were weighed with great attention and that little regard was made of the merits For this reason I spake the second words And seeing that the merits were so few and inconsiderable for to be justified I spake the third And in regard that with the merits of the Passion of Christ our Saviour the balance wherein my good works were weighed more than the other immediately a favourable sentence was given in my behalf For this reason I said now 't is well And having said this he gave up his ghost § 3. The third cause of the terribleness of the end of Temporal Life which is the charge which shall be given of divine benefits received THere is also in the end of life another cause of much terrour unto Sinners which is the lively knowledge which they shall have of the divine benefits received and the Charge which shall be laid against them for their great ingratitude and abuse of them This is also signified by what the Prophet Daniel spake of the Throne and Tribunal of God For he not onely said it was of flames of fire by which was given us to understand the rigour of divine justice against Sinners signified by the violence heat and activity of fire and the discovery and manifestation of sins signified by the light and brightness of the flames but he also adds that from the face of the Judge there proceeded a heady and rapid river which was also of fire signifying by the swiftness of the course and the issuing of it from God the multitude of his graces and benefits which flowing from the divine goodness are communicated and poured down upon his Creatures His saying that this so great river shall in that day be of fire is to make us understand the rigour of that Charge against us for our abuse of those infinite benefits bestowed together with the light and clearness wherewith we shall know them and the horrour and confusion which shall then seise upon us for our great ingratitude and the small account we have made of them in so much as Sinners in that instant are not onely to stand in fear of their own bad works but of the grace and benefits of God Almighty conferr'd upon them Another mourning Weed and confusion shall cover them when they shall see what God hath done to oblige and assist them toward their salvation and what they to the contrary have done to draw upon them their own damnation They shall tremble to see what God did for their good and that he did so much as he could do no more all which hath been mis-imployed and abused by themselves This is so clear and evident on the part of God Almighty that he calls men themselves as witnesses and Judges of the truth and therefore speaking under the Metaphor of a Vineyard by his Prophet Isay Isai 5. he saith in this manner Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge betwixt me and my Vineyard what ought I to have done more unto my Vineyard and have not done it And after the incarnation of the Son of God the Lord turns again to upbraid men with the same resentment and signifies more fully the multitude of his benefits under the same Metaphor of a Vineyard Mat. 21. which a man planted and so much cherished and esteemed it that he sent thither his onely Son who was slain in the demand of it Let therefore men enter into judgement against themselves and let them be judges whether God could have done more for them and has not done it they being still so ungrateful towards their Creatour as if he had been their enemy and done them some notorious injury Coming therefore to consider every one of these benefits by its self The first which occurs is that of the Creation which was signified by our Saviour Jesus Christ when he said that He planted a Vineyard and what could God do more for thee since in this one benefit of thy Creation he gave thee all what thou art both in soul and body If wanting an arm thou wouldest esteem thy self much obliged and be very thankful unto him who should bestow one upon thee which were sound strong and useful why art thou not so to God who hath given thee arms heart soul body and all Consider what thou wert before he gave thee a being Nothing and now thou enjoyest not onely a being but the best being of the Elemental world Philosophers say that betwixt being and not being there is an infinite distance See then what thou owest unto thy Creatour and thou shalt find thy debt to be no less than infinite since he hath not onely given thee a being but a noble being and that not by necessity but out of an infinite love and by election making choice of thee amongst an infinity of men possible whom he might have created If lots were to be cast amongst a hundred persons for some honourable charge how fortunate would he be esteemed who should draw the lot from so many Competitors behold then thy own happiness who from an absolute nothing hast light upon a being amongst an infinity of creatures possible And whence proceeds this singular favour but from God who out of those numberless millions hath pickt out thee leaving many others who if he had created them would have served him better than thy self See then what God could have done for thee and has not having chosen thee without any desert of thine from amongst so many and preferred thee before those whom he foresaw would have been more thankful Besides this he not onely created thee by election and gave thee a noble being but supernatural happiness being no way due unto thy nature he created thee for it and gave thee for thy end the most high and eminent that could be imagined to wit the eternal possession of thy Creatour It was enough for God to create thee for a natural happiness conformable to what thou wert but he not to leave any thing undone which he could do created thee for a supernatural blessedness in so much as there is no creature which hath a higher end then thy self See then if God could do more for thee and has not and see what thou oughtest to do